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THE 


Oberlin  Jubilee 


1833 -1883 


Edited    by 

Prof.  W.  G.   BALLANTINE 


1  ^  -> »  30 

_L,  1      J  »         J 


Oberlin,  Ohio 
E.    J.    GOODRICH 


Copyrighted  1883, 
By   E.    J.    GOODRICH. 


PREFACE. 


The  Jubilee  Celebration  was  heralded  by  an 
unofficial  monthly  publication  called  "Jubilee 
Notes,"  which  found  its  way  to  every  graduate, 
and  a  large  number  of  the  friends  and  former 
students  of  the  Institution.  The  number  for  April 
contained  the  following  announcement : 

1833— OBERLIN   SEMI-CENTENNIAL— 1883. 

June  29  to  July  4. 

In  accordance  with  the  action  of  the  Trustees  in  18S1,  the 
Alumni  in  1882,  as  well  as  of  the  Faculty,  the  civil  authorities  of 
Oberlin,  and  the  several  churches;  the  Semi-Centennial  Celebra- 
tion of  the  village  and  College  will  be  observed  in  1883,  beginining 
Friday  evening,  June  29th,  and  closing  Wenesday  evening,  July 
4th.     Particular  attention  is  called  to  the  following: 

OFFICIAL    ANNOUNCEMENTS. 
A  CARD. 

The  College  sends  its  congratulations  to  all  graduates  and 
former  students,  to  all  donors,  and  to  all  old  residents  of  Oberlin, 
and  cordially  invites  them  to  share  in  the  festivities  of  its  Jubilee 
Celebration,  June  29th  to  July  4th,  1883. 

It  is  especially  desired  that  the  large  number  of  former  students 
not  enrolled  among  the  Alumni,  should  make  this  an  occasion  for 


m499y2 


4  PREFACE, 

revisiting  their  College  home.     Wives  and  husbands  are  always 
included  in  our  invitations.  Judson  Smith, 

For  the  Cotnmittee  on  Invitations. 


The  Committee  will  endeavor  to  provide  places  of  entertain- 
ment for  guests  of  the  Town  and  College,  at  reasonable  charges 
or  gratuitously.  The  number  of  visitors  expected  is  so  large  that 
it  will  be  necessary  for  all  guests  to  communicate  at  once  with 
Prof.  A.  A.  Wright,  stating  definitely  the  time  for  which  entertain, 
ment  is  desired,  and  all  other  necessary  particulars. 

A.  A.  Wright, 
For  the  Com?nittee  of  Entertainment. 

These  cards  were  followed  by  a  summary  of  the 
programme  given  below,  which  was  carried  out 
without  interruption  or  change,  except  that  a  few 
papers  w^ere  postponed  for  lack  of  time. 

The  entire  celebration  passed  auspiciously. 
Ample  preparations  had  been  made  for  the  enter- 
tainment of  guests,  and  the  students  contributed 
their  share  by  erecting  a  tabernacle  in  the  park, 
capable  of  seating  3500  people. 

About  3000  guests  were  present  for  a  longer  or 
shorter  time.  The  very  clouds  favored  us,  with- 
holding rain  until  the  close  of  the  last  exercise. 

The  following  addresses  constitute  only  a  part 
of  the  Jubilee.  The  society  and  class  re-unions, 
the  morning  prayer-meetings,  the  informal  gather^ 
ings  and  the  handshakings  and  visits  under  the 
trees  in  the  park  will  long  be  rem  mbered. 

As  a  whole  the  Jubilee  was  a  fitting  crown  for 
the  work  of  Oberlin  during  the  past  half-century, 
and  an  earnest  of  yet  greater  things  in  the  years 
to  come. 


PREFACE.  5 

PROGRAMME. 

[From  the  Semi-Centennial  Bulletin.] 
Thursday,  June  28. 
2.00  P.M. — Secojid  Church, 
Commencement — Conservatory  of  Music. 

Friday,  June  29. 
3.00  P.M. — First  Church. 
Senior  Preparatory  Exhibition. 

7.30  P.M. — First  Church. 
Introductory  Address  by  Prof.  W.  G.  Ballantine. 
Address  before  Theological  Alumni,  Prof.  Wm.  M.  Barbour,  '59, 
New  Haven,  Conn. 

Saturday,  June  30, 
8.00  A.M. — Second  Church,  Lecture  Room, 
Prayer  Meeting. 

9.00  A.M. — First  Church. 
Commencement — Theological   Department.      President  Hayes 
will  attend  these  exercises  and  will  say  a  few  words. 

2.00  P.M. — First  Church — Reunion  of  Theological  Alumni. 
^  Opening  Address,  Rev.  M.  W.  Fairfield,  '47,  Muskegon,  Mich.  . 
(^"Lane  Seminary  Rebels,"  Rev.  H.  Lyman,  '36,  Cortland,  N.  Y.3 
"Early  Days,"  Rev.  Leonard  S.  Parker,  '38,  Berkley,  Mass. 
**The  Beginning,"  Rev.  John  M.  Williams,  '42,  Chicago,  111. 
*•  The  Middle  Period,"  Pres.  N.  J.  Morrison,  '57,  Springfield,  Mo. 
*'The  Later  Period,"  Rev.  C.  C.  Creegan,  '76,  Syracuse,  N,  Y. 
Addresses  from  other  Alumni. 

Sunday,  July  i. 
8.30  a.m. — Auditoritim — Sabbath  School  Anniversary. 
Opening  Exercises. 

"Early  History,"  Rev.  William  Kincaid,  Spencerport,  N.  Y. 
"  Work  of  the  Sabbath  School  Association,"  Rev.  H.  S.  Bennett, 
Nashville,  Tenn. 

"Superintendencyof  J.  M.  Fitch,"  Prof.  J.  M.  Ellis,  Oberlin. 


O  PREFACE. 

**  Present  Aspect  of  the  Work,"  by  the  S.  S.  Superintendents. 
"Our  Future,"  Rev.  C.  J.  Ryder,  Medina. 

10.30  A.M. — Auditorium — Baccalaureate  Sermon. 
"Providential  Aspects  of  the  Oberlin  Enterprise,"  Pres.  J.  H. 

Fairchild. 

2 .  00  P.M.  — A  uditorium . 

Experience  and  Conference  Meeting,  led  by  Pres.  E.  H.  Fair- 
child,  Berea,  Ky. 

Communion  Service. 

7.30  P.M. — First  Church — Missionary  Service. 

"Oberlin   and    Missionary  Work,"    Rev.    M.    E.   Strieby,   '41, 
Sec'y  A.  M.  A.,  New  York. 

"The  Early  Home  Missionary,"  Rev.  John  Todd,  '44,  Tabor, 
la. 

"The  Later  Home  Missionary,"  Rev.  Leroy  Warren,  '61,  Lans- 
ing, Mich. 

7.30  P.M. — Second  Church — Missionary  Service. 

Ordination  of  Francis  M.  Price,  '83,  Missionary  to  China. 

Ad.dress  by  Rev.  S.  J.  Humphrey,  Chicago,  111. 

Monday,  July  2. 
8  00  A.M. — Second  Church  Lecture  Room. 
Prayer  Meeting. 

9.00  A.M. — First  Church. 
Commencement — Literary  Course. 

2.00  p.m. — First  Church — Reunion  of  Alumnae. 
Address  of  Welcome,  Mrs.  A.  A.  F.  Johnston,  '56,  Literary. 
"Oberlin  and  the  Education  of  Women,"  Mrs.  Sarah  C.  Little, 
*59,  Classical,  Janesville,  Wis. 

"The   First    Classes,"   Mrs.   Douglass    Putnam,  '39,    Literary, 
Harmar. 

Poem,  Mrs.  Emily  Huntington  Miller,  '57,  Literary,  St.  Paul, 
Minn. 

"What  has    Oberlin  done    for  us?"  Mrs.  M.  C.  Kincaid,  '65, 
Classical,  Spencerport,  N.  Y. 

Address,  Miss   Mary   Evans,   Principal  of   Lake   Erie   Female 
Seminary,  Painesville. 

Brief  Addresses  from  other  Alumnae. 


PREFACE.  7 

3.30  r.M. — Second  Chu7xh. 
Union  Exhibition  of  Phi  Kappa  Pi,  Phi  Delta,  and  Alpha  Zeta 
Societies. 

4.00  P.M. — Society  Reunions. 
L  L.  S.,  Council  Hall  Chapel, 
.^lioian,  Ladies'  Hall  Parlors. 

5.30  P.M. — Society  Reunions, 
Phi  Kappa  Pi,  Second  Church  Parlors  and  Lecture  Room. 
Phi  Delta,  First  Church  Chapel. 
Alpha  Zeta,  Society  Room. 

Tuesday,  July  3. 
8.00  A.M. — Second  Church  Lecture  Room. 
Prayer  Meeting. 

9. 00  A.M.  — A uditorium. 
Commencement — Classical  Course. 

2.00  p.m. — Auditorium — Reunion  of  Alumni, 
Prof.  J.  M.  Ellis  presiding. 
Necrological  Report  by  Register  of  the  Alumni,   Prof.  A.  A. 
Wright. 

First  Decade,  '33  to  '43,  Rev.  H,  L.  Hammond,  '38,  Chicago,  111, 
Second  Decade,  '43  to  '53,  Rev.   D.   N.   Bordvvcll,   '52,   Golden 
Prairie,  Iowa. 

Third  Decade,  '53  to  '63,   Rev.   J.   L.   Patton,  '59,   Greenville, 
Mich. 

Fourth  Decade,  '63  to  '73,  Rev.  R.  T.  Cross,  '67,  Denver,  Col. 
Fifth  Decade,  '73  to  '83,  Dr.  Dudley  P.  Allen,  '75,  Cleveland. 
Poem,  Charles  C.  Darwin,  68,  Washington,  D.  C. 
Brief  Addresses  by  other  Alumni. 

4.00  p.m. — Class  Reunions. 

7.30  P.M. — Second  Church — Anti- Slavery  Reunion. 

Opening  Address  by  Prof.  James  Monroe.  x^ 

r*' Personal  Experience,"  Rev.  Amos  Dresser,  Franklin,  Neb.    J 

"  The  Underground  Railroad,"  Pres.  E.  H.  Fairchild,  Berea,  Ky. 

"  Oberlin-Wellington  Rescuers,"  Hon.  Ralph  Plumb,  Streator, 

111. 


8  PREFACE. 

"The  War  and  Slavery,"  Gen.  A.  B.  Nettleton,  Minneapolis, 
Minn. 
Gen.  P.  C.  Hayes,  Morris,  111. 

7.30  P.M. — First  Church. 
Grand  Concert  by  the  Musical  Union — Oratorio  of  Elijah. 

Wednesday,  July  4. 
8.00  A.M. — Second  Church,  Lecture  Room. 
Prayer  Meeting. 

9,00  A.M. — Auditorium — Jubilee  Exercises. 
Address  of  Welcome,  Pres.  J.  H.  Fairchild,  '38,  Oberlin. 
Jubilee  Address,  Gen.  J.  D.  Cox,  '51,  Cincinnati. 
"The  Colony  and  the  College,"  Rev.  Wm.  H.  Ryder,  '66,  Ann 
Arbor,  Mich. 
p,    "Oberlin  and  Woman,"  Mrs  Lucy  Stone,  '47,  Classical,  Boston,  \ 
<^Mass. 

"  Future  Work  of  Oberlin,"  Prof.  Judson  Smith,  '63,  Theo., 
Oberlin. 

Address,  Gov.  Chas.  Foster. 

12. 30  p. M. — Auditoriu7n — Lunch. 
2.00  P.M. — Afternoon  Addresses. 
Prof.  James  Monroe  presiding. 
"Oberlin  Humor,"  Rev.  E.  S.  Williams,  '^5,  Theo.,  Minneapo- 
lis, Minn. 

Poem,  Rev.  P.  S.  Boyd,  '60,  Amesbury,  Mass, 
Brief  Addresses  by  Alumni,   Representatives  of   sister  institu- 
tions, and  invited  guests. 

4.00  P.M. — Class  Reunions. 

7.30  P.M. — First  Church. 

Grand  Concert  by  the  Musical  Union — Oratorio  of  Elijah, 
Chorus  of  140.  Soloists :  Soprano — Mme.  Christine  Dosert,  New 
York  ;  alto — Miss  Mary  Phoenix,  Chicago,  111. ;  baritone — Mr. 
Max  Henrich,  New  York  ;  tenor — Mr.  Albert  L.  King,  New  York. 


INTRODUCTORY  ADDRESS. 

BY   PROF.   W.    G.    BALLANTINE. 
First  Church,  Friday  Evening,  June  29th. 

We  begin  to-night  to  celebrate  the  completion  of 
the  first  fifty  years  of  the  life  of  Oberlin  Village 
and  College. 

Our  first  word  is  a  word  of  welcome.  For  years 
we  whose  privilege  it  is  to  stay  in  the  old  home- 
stead have  anticipated  this  happy  reunion  and 
have  prepared  for  it  as  best  we  could.  We  wel- 
come all — fathers,  brethren  and  friends. 

We  welcome  the  survivors  of  the  band  whose 
sturdy  arms  felled  here  the  giant  beeches  and  oaks 
of  the  primeval  forest,  and  built  Christian  homes 
where  the  bear  had  reared  her  cubs. 

We  welcome  old  teachers  who  brought  the 
choicest  culture  of  New  England  and  planted  it 
among  the  stumps  of  the  clearing.  We  welcome 
all  the  venerable  men  and  women  who  shared  in 
those  early  labors  and  privations  and  victories — 
whose  prayers  and  tears,  and  devotion  to  truth 
and  to  humanity  and  to  God,  made  Oberlin. 

We  welcome  the  theologians  of  *'  Slab  Hall,"  the 
"felons"  of  the  Cleveland  Jail,  the  soldiers  of 
''  Company  C,"  and  of  all  the  loyal  companies  that 
followed.   We  welcome  the  missionaries  of  Jamaioa 


lO  OB E RUN  JUBILEE. 

aiid'of  Africa,  of  our  own  Western  Wilds  and 
^p?4th^rn/S';:ate^.;        ; 

'Axi!6i  Whar^hall  I  more  say?  for  time  would  fail 
me  to  enumerate  all  the  Gideons  and  Baraks  who 
through  faith  have  subdued  kingdoms  and  wrought 
righteousness. 

Welcome  to  the  Friends  of  Oberlin  whose  coun- 
sels and  prayers  and  gifts  have  sustained  the  work 
here,  and  who  have  blessed  thousands  unknown  to 
you  by  face  or  name. 

Welcome  to  every  citizen  and  student  of  early  or 
of  later  years,  to  every  friend  of  education,  to 
every  beMever  in  the  dignity  and  high  calling  of 
woman,  to  every  believer  in  the  brotherhood  of 
man,  to  every  laborer  for  political  reform,  to  every 
foe  of  whiskey-drinking  and  drunkard-making. 

Welcome  to  all  who  love  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
in  sincerity ! 

Strangers  may  ask  why  the  affections  of  so 
many  thousands  turn  to  this  little  spot  with  a 
strength  so  much  beyond  that  which  commonly 
springs  from  the  memory  of  school-days  or  even 
of  an  early  home.  Here  is  a  love  like  that  which 
the  Jews  of  old  felt  for  Jerusalem.  The  answer  is 
simple.  The  name  Oberlin  means  more  than  a 
school  and  more  than  a  home.  It  stands  for  an 
effort  to  hasten  the  coming  of  the  kingdom  of 
Christ  upon  the  earth.  This  spot  was  chosen  that 
from  it  a  most  living  and  potent  influence  might 
go  forth  upon  the  nation,  the  church,  the  school, 
the  family,  the  individual — the  influence  of  the 
gospel  of  Christ. 


INTRODUCTORY  ADDRESS,  II 

The  foresight  and  breadth  of  view  which  charac- 
terized the  founders,  their  practical  wisdom  and 
unselfish  devotion,  were  remarkable.  But  their 
wisdom  appears  most  conspicuously  in  this :  that 
they  made  no  single  point  of  Christian  life  or  work 
or  belief  fundamental.  The  purpose  of  this  village 
and  college  was  and  is  as  wide  as  that  of  the  gospel. 
Upon  so  broad  a  foundation  alone  could  so  grand, 
so  complex,  and  so  fruitful  a  result  have  arisen. 
Whatever  has  promised  good  to  men  Oberlin  has 
been  ready  to  do.  Thus  within  her  first  two  years 
she  threw  open  her  hospitality  to  the  fleeing  slaves 
at  her  doors;  thus  within  the  last  two,  she  has 
reached  round  the  globe  to  give  the  bread  of  life 
to  thirty  millions  of  the  Antipodes. 

Oberlin  was  founded  not  on  the  pattern  of  any 
older  place,  but  to  meet  the  immediate  wants  of 
the  church  and  of  the  world  as  they  might  appear. 
Hence  a  marvellous  adaptability. 

It  has  appeared  inexplicable  to  some  that  the 
supposed  staunch  fanatics  of  the  underground  rail- 
road should  have  founded  a  great  school  of  clas- 
sical music.  But  such  critics  forget  that  it  was  the 
sweet  psalmist  and  harper  of  Israel  who  slew  the 
lion  and  the  bear  and  smote  the  Philistine  of  Gath. 
Samson  was  not  the  man  after  God's  own  heart, 
but  David. 

At  this  meeting  of  theological  alumni  we  may 
congratulate  ourselves,  brethren,  upon  the  simple, 
natural,  free  and  yet  stable,  theological  position, 
which  this  seminary  holds.  No  investigator  of 
truth  here  is  harassed  by  the  apprehension  of  pos- 


12  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

sible  confessional  or  legal  responsibilities.  No 
painful  days  or  nights  are  spent  here  in  fixing  the 
precise  lines  of  human  creeds.  The  fathers  as  they 
pass  away  commit  the  work  to  those  whom  they 
believe  faithful  men,  trusting  that  the  Holy  Spirit 
will  guide  the  church  when  they  are  gone.  And 
these  men  receive  it  in  deep  humility,  and  with  a 
profound  sense  of  their  responsibility  to  the  Great 
Head  of  the  Church.  No  pledge  of  yesterday 
binds  the  Oberlin  of  to-day.  Yet  this  freedom 
does  not  mean  a  readiness  to  doubt  the  doctrines 
upon  which  the  church  has  stood  for  eighteen  cen- 
turies. The  most  Baconian  scientist  feels  sure  that 
Plymouth  Rock  cannot  be  proved  to  be  a  sand 
heap.  And  so  we,  while  free  as  air  to  accept  any 
new  light  that  may  come,  have  no  expectation  of 
evidence  to  prove  that  the  histories  of  the  Old 
Testament  are  cunningly  devised  fables,  or  that 
it  will  be  well  with  the  wicked  in  the  world  to 
come. 

But  highly  as  we  must  applaud  the  wisdom  and 
modesty  of  the  founders  of  this  village  and  this 
institution,  the  chief  praise  belongs  not  to  them. 
No  human  power  or  prudence  could  have  selected 
and  brought  together  into  the  enterprise  so  large 
a  number  of  men  and  women  pre-eminent  in 
natural  endowments  and  in  Christian  graces.  No 
human  contrivance  could  have  produced  the  har- 
monious CO- working  of  so  many  events  and  circum- 
stances. In  the  sight  of  what  has  been  accom- 
plished we  must  reverently  uncover  our  heads  and 
exclaim,  "  What  hath  God  wrought !  "     We  have 


INTRODUCTORY  ADDRESS.  1 3 

come  together  not  to  praise  Oberlin,  but  to  thank 
God. 

A  shade  of  sadness  must  fall  upon  the  brightness 
of  all  earthly  reunions.  Many  of  those  whom  we 
should  most  delight  to  see  and  to  honor  have 
passed  to  their  rest.  The  blessed  tradition  of  their 
piety  remains  with  the  place  and  meets  the  incom- 
ing students  like  a  benediction.  It  will  be  good 
for  us  to  recall  their  names  and  recount  their 
virtues. 

But  we  are  gathered  not  not  only  to  look  back- 
ward, but  also  to  look  forward.  We  have  not 
gathered  to  close  up  anything.  Nothing  ends  this 
year  but  a  half  century  of  time.  The  wants,  of  the 
Mississippi  valley  are  as  great  as  they  were  fifty 
years  ago,  and  the  wants  of  the  great  new  West 
have  been  added.  Africa  and  Asia  cry  louder  than 
ever,  '*Come  over  and  help  us."  Political  and 
social  and  educational  and  religious  questions 
affecting  the  welfare  of  millions  demand  for  their 
settlement  Christian  statesmanship  and  Christian 
science,  and  a  scientific  and  statesmanlike  Christi- 
anity. 

We  invite  you,  dear  friends,  to  talk  over  the 
present  and  future  work  of  Oberlin.  We  believe 
it  to  be  a  work  which  no  institution  can  do  with- 
out the  cordial  and  unflagging  support  of  a  vast,  a 
united,  a  prayerful,  and  a  liberal  constituency. 

Once  more,  fathers  and  brethren,  welcome. 


ADDRESS   BEFORE  THE  THEOLOGI- 
CAL ALUMNL 

BY   PROF.   W.    M.   BARBOUR,  '59, 
Yale  Theolgical  Seminary. 

Isaac  Taylor  introduces  his  valuable  work  on 
the  "  Natural  History  of  Enthusiasm,"  as  follows : 

"  The  belief  that  a  bright  era  of  renovation,  and 
union,  and  extension,  presently  awaits  the  Chris- 
tian church,  seems  to  be  very  generally  entertained. 
The  writer  of  this  volume  participates  in  the 
cheering  hope  ;  and  it  has  impelled  him  to  under- 
take the  difficult  task  of  describing,  under  its 
various  forms,  that  fictitious  piety  which  hitherto 
has  never  failed  to  appear  in  times  of  unusual  re- 
ligious excitement,  and  which  may  be  anticipated 
as  the  probable  attendant  of  a  new  development  of 
the  powers  of  Christianity." 

This  was  written  in  1829,  four  years  before  the 
founding  of  Oberlin;  but  in  the  midst  of  the 
fomenting  beliefs  that  came  over  from  "  the  hu- 
mane century,"  the  eighteenth,  and  introduced  the 
practical  philanthropies  which  have  thus  far  dis- 
tinguished the  nineteenth.  Coming  as  it  does  from 
the  study  of  a  literary  recluse,  in  the  mother 
islands,  and  out  of  a  book  which  has  done  its  part 
to  temper  and  direct  the  "  enthusiasms  of  reform" 
which  followed  its  publication,  it  is  here  quoted  as 


THE    OBERLIN    THEOLOGY.  1 5 

indicating  in  its  own  prophecy,  and  career,  the 
place  and  the  power  of  the  OberHn  colony.  What 
this  Christian  scholar,  and  many  like  him,  were 
brooding  over,  in  both  hope  and  fear,  Oberlin  be- 
gan to  do — first  giving  voice  to  the  people's  long- 
ings, and  then  keeping  in  the  conflicts  bestirred, 
especially  the  religious  conflicts  with  stationary 
Christianity  —  urging  to  action,  and  restraining 
from  excess,  those  unto  whom  the  cry  of  the  time 
had  come.  That  the  cry  was  for  life  to  things 
dead,  and  for  liberty  to  things  bound,  the  move- 
ments, which  are  now  history,  make  abundantly 
clear.  There  was  a  breaking  out  on  the  right 
hand,  and  on  the  left.  On  this  side  of  the  Atlantic 
there  was  the  desire  for  freedom  to  the  slave,  to 
the  national  soil  from  the  possibility  of  slavery,  to 
the  victims  of  intemperance  from  their  destr.oyer, 
to  woman  from  hersocialand  personal  subjections, 
to  the  nations  from  their  ignorance  and  idolatry  ; 
and,  also,  in  many  souls,  were  longings  for  a  freer 
gospel  and  a  more  abundant  salvation.  The  other 
side  of  the  Atlantic  had  its  corresponding  agita- 
tions :  the  West  Indian  emancipation  scheme,  the 
extension  of  the  suffrage,  the  relief  of  the  poor, 
and  the  removal  of  religious  tests  and  disabilities. 
Earnest  men,  in  all  the  churches,  themselves  newly 
quickened,  were  insisting  on  the  new  birth  as  a 
conscious  experience.  Presbyteries  were  shaken 
with  discussions  on  the  functions  and  extent  of  the 
atonement,  particularly  as  bearing  on  personal 
salvation.  There  were  also  keen  discussions  on 
the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  on  the  prospects 


1 6  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

of  the  heathen  apart  from  the  gospel.  If  not  ex- 
actly after  the  same  manner,  in  exactly  the  same 
direction,  Christian  thought  and  action  were 
turned.  And  close  upon  this  breaking  up  of  leth- 
argy in  religion,  came  the  foreign  missionary 
exodus, — the  dates,  methods,  and  successes  of  that 
great  enterprise,  show  what  new  forms  of  labor 
Christ  was  bringing  his  people  into,  by  this  rising 
interest  in  practical  Christianity. 

Out  of  this  condition  of  thought  and  feeling, 
more  especially  as  affecting  good  men  on  this 
Western  Reserve,  with  others  in  New  York  and 
the  central  New  England  States,  Oberlin  had  its 
beginning;  and  here  we  are,  in  the  good  provi- 
dence of  God,  to  rejoice  together,  over  the  out- 
come of  the  past  fifty  years.  Those  of  us  who 
were  here  at  the  twentieth  anniversary,  and  heard 
the  original  settlers  tell  of  the  first  blows  struck  in 
the  then  unbroken  forest,  are  more  than  surprised 
at  the  signs  of  prosperity  possessing  and  encircling 
this  comely  town.  Upon  this  there  can  be  no  de- 
lay to-night,  nor  can  time  be  taken  to  speak  upon 
the  general  success  of  the  College. 

By  the  duty  of  the  hour,  we  are  limited  to  one 
theme,  and  to  one  aspect  of  one  theme,  namely, 
the  "Oberlin  Theology  Historically  Viewed." 

This,  in  brief,  is  the  thesis  assigned  me,  by  my 
former  instructors ;  and,  as  we  have  ever  found  it 
a  privilege  to  obey  them  when  their  counsel  w^as 
against  ourselves,  we  see  no  way  to  refuse  them, 
now  that  their  counsel  is  against  themselves.  For 
certain  are  we,  that  their  desired  sketch  of  Ober- 


THE   OBERLIN    THEOLOGY.  1/ 

lin's  influence  on  the  theological  thought  of  her 
time,  had  been  better  given,  had  a  better  scholar 
been  called  up  to  recite. 

Narrowing  our  view,  then,  to  the  matter  in 
hand,  let  me  first  beg  your  attention  to  what  may 
be  called  a  natural  history  of  the  new  movement  in 
theology.  The  history  of  the  need  of  change  may 
be  found  in  the  fact  that  the  Protestant  mind  was, 
in  general,  resting  content  with  what  had  been 
gained  at  the  Reformation ;  for,  after  some  doc- 
trinal discussions  following  the  possession  of  the 
Bible  by  the  people,  certain  results  were  embalmed 
in  those  Creeds  and  Confessions  which  have  since 
been  the  standard  of  the  Reformed  faith.  They 
are  so  still ;  they  stand  in  honor  as  such  ;  they  de- 
serve to  be  respected  by  us  all,  as  the  recorded 
mark  of  that  new  advance.  By  and  by,  as  even 
reformed  human  nature  works,  the  possession  of  a 
good  thing  lapsed  into  an  equivalent  to  the  exer- 
cise of  its  goodness.  It  was  a  great  thing  to 
possess  intellectual  light  and  liberty, — the  exten- 
sion of  them,  by  reason  of  use  upon  other  themes 
than  those  recorded,  was  not  urgent.  Morever,  the 
Divine  Power  manifested  in  those  national  convul- 
sions which  lessened  the  influence  of  potentates, 
seemed  to  have  been  the  main  idea  of  power  in 
the  religious  thought  of  the  time.  The  hand  that 
dethroned  the  Sauls  and  set  up  the  Davids,  was 
the  hand  that  was  visible  against  the  Guelphs  and 
the  Guises ;  and  the  very  same  hand  was  the  one 
that  changed  the  hearts  of  men,  and  after  the  same 
manner.      For  whatever  allowances  are  made  in 


1 5  OBERLIN  J UBILEE. 

certain  statements,  the  post-reformation  tlieologies 
are  full  to  overflowing  with  ideas  of  moral  govern- 
ment, that  substantially  subordinate  it  to  physical 
government.  Gravely,  Nebuchadnezzar  has  been 
quoted  as  more  orthodox  upon  the  Divine  omnip- 
otence than  those  who  held  the  freedom  of  the 
will :  ''  None  can  stay  His  hand,  or  say  unto  Him, 
'What  doest  thou?'" 

Further,  human  nature  was  again  at  work,  in  its 
old  desire  for  some  one  to  bear  its  responsibihties  ; 
and  now  that  the  Pope  was  *'  no  more"  to  the 
Protestant  mind,  it  seemed  glad  to  have  a  minis- 
terial teacher,  a  general  Confession,  or  a  church, 
to  which  it  might  look,  as  a  resting-place  for  the 
inexplicable.  It  was  worth  something,  as  it  is 
worth  a  great  deal  now,  to  many,  to  know  that 
there  is  an  answer,  or  the  decision  that  there  is  no 
answer  to  new  questions.  The  difference  between 
the  Catholic  and  the  Protestant  churches  that  ap- 
peal to  a  stated  authority,  seems  to  be  this  :  ''  The 
one  cannot  err,  and  the  other  never  does;  the  one  is 
infallible,  and  the  other  always  in  the  right." 

To  this,  adds  Archbishop  Whately,  "  It  is  de- 
clared that  other  churches  than  the  Protestant 
have  erred  ;  it  is  not  denied  that  ours  may  err  ;  yet 
it  is  never  admitted  by  those  under  the  Reformed 
confessions,  that  their  church  has  fallen  into  any 
error." 

The  collisions  with  this  wisdom  of  the  past, 
which  have  inevitably  followed  any  awakening 
of  original  and  forceful  minds,  have  a  marked 
prophecy   in    Mr.   Finney's  account  of   his  early 


THE   OB E RUN    THEOLOGY.  IQ 

inquiries.  *'  I  found,"  says  he,  in  the  preface  to 
his  Theology,  "  the  blessed  truths  of  the  gospel, 
to  a  great  extent,  hidden  under  a  false  philosophy  ; 
there  were  few,  if  any,  clear  definitions  of  religious 
doctrines  ;  the  assumptions  lay  under  the  standard 
theologies,  that  all  government  was  physical  as 
opposed  to  moral ;  that  sin  and  holiness  were 
attributes,  rather  than  moral  acts  ;  hence  the  doc- 
trine of  a  sinful  nature,  that  is,  as  a  nature ;  a 
necessitated  will,  an  inability  to  righteousness — 
consequently  a  physical  regeneration  was  called 
for ;  consequently  to  that  a  physical  Divine  influ- 
ence was  necessary,  and  so  on. 

Of  course,  minds  of  an  originally  Protestant 
order,  found  out,  from  the  Bible  itself,  under  the 
light  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  that  there  was  no  agree- 
ment between  some  of  these  doctrinal  statements 
and  the  Bible  as  it  *'  commends  itself  to  their  own 
consciences  in  the  sight  of  God."  To  those  urged 
into  the  examination  of  God's  truth,  '*  in  the  sight 
of  God,"  the  usual  cautions  against  ''the  pride  of 
reason,"  are  urged  too  late.  The  pride  of  un- 
reason it  would  then  be,  to  stop  short  of  an  answer 
from  God  himself,  if  answer  can  be  had,  to  the 
great  questions  **  What  is  Sin  ?"  and  "•  What  is  Sal- 
vation?" 

And  it  was  into  this  search,  at  no  second  hand 
instigation,  that  Mr.  Finney  and  others  around 
him,  were  pressed.  And  Oberlin  gave  them  their 
opportunity  to  think,  and  to  speak  out  what  they 
thought. 

Disclaiming  the  fact,  that  in  what  is  further  said. 


20  OBERUN  JUBILEE. 

we  assume  that  the  Oberlin  Theology  secured  the 
absolute  truth  on  all  that  it  clarified  and  made  a 
power;  and  disclaiming-  also  any  assumption  that 
the  Oberlin  thinkers  were  alone,  or  even  had  the 
priority  of  all  other  Christian  scholars  in  their  in- 
vestigations, we  proceed  to  notice  some  of  the 
more  prominent  doctrines  they  revised  and  im- 
proved, and  to  state  briefly  our  views  of  their 
influence  upon  our  religious  life. 

As  in  New  Haven  and  elsewhere,  where  the 
Edwardean  possibihty  of  an  improvement  in 
theology  was  admitted,  the  great  theme  here 
was  moral  government.  Uppermost  in  their 
thoughts  were  ''  God "  and  ''  Law,"  especially 
the  kind  of  law  he  ruled  the  free  mind  by, — fre- 
quent in  their  speech  were  *'  conscience "  and 
"  obedience,"  the  kind  and  the  amount  of  obedi- 
ence demanded,  and  the  ability  of  every  man  to 
render  it.  While  central  and  mediating  among  the 
discordant  elements  around  him  was  the  Christ, — 
the  brightness  of  the  Father's  glory  in  upholding 
the  law,  yet  the  sinner's  only  hope  and  encourage- 
ment to  salvation. 

Roused,  as  we  have  said,  by  no  second-hand 
power,  the  Oberlin  brethren  would  take  no  second- 
hand answer  to  their  inquiries  upon  the  way  to 
God,  to  Christ,  to  the  new  obedience.  And  here, 
in  what  Robert  Southey  calls  "  the  timing  of 
Providence"  (so  that  one  event  shall  come,  that 
another  may  happen,  or  be  cared  for  when  it  hap- 
pens), as  in  the  invention  of  the  printing-press  to 
be  ready  for  the   Bible  at  the  Reformation — we 


THE   OBEKLIN    THEOLOGY.  21 

have  pleasure  in  noticing  what  had  immediately 
preceded  this  call  to  certain  minds  to  come  into 
closer  contact  with  God  in  his  rule  of  the  world. 
Most  invaluable  in  the  new  search  was  the  Kan- 
tean  division  of  the  mental  powers,  just  elaborated 
and  ready  for  application,  in  the  separation  of  the 
moral  from  the  non-moral  in  conduct,  and  in  the 
clear  distinctions  made  possible  between  the  de- 
sires and  the  will.  Of  great  service,  also,  was 
Butler's  thinking  on  the  supremacy  of  the  con- 
science ;  the  growth  of  the  intuitional  philosophy 
from  Des  Cartes  to  Hamilton,  with  its  ceaseless 
appeal  to  consciousness  as  an  unchallengeable  wit- 
ness on  all  matters  within  its  pale. 

Urged  by  personal  and  surrounding  need,  and 
aided  by  their  opportunities,  the  leaders  in  the  new 
movement  pressed  into  the  very  heart  of  things. 

Perhaps  one  of  the  most  important  questions 
discussed  here  was  "  The  Foundation  of  Moral 
Obligation."  The  answer  to  the  last  question  on 
this  theme  having  been  controverted  within  Ober- 
lin  itself,  it  created  more  local  interest  than  any 
other  of  the  discussions  peculiar  to  the  place. 

Of  this  fundamental  question  this  can  safely  be 
said :  that  it  is  hard  to  find  in  either  our  theo- 
logical literatures,  or  lectureships,  a  more  thorough 
grappling  with  this  momentous  theme,  or  a  more 
successful  vindication  of  the  position  here  main- 
tained. Certainly  President  Finney  and  his  coadju- 
tors came  out  of  this  fresh  and  exhaustive  search 
for  the  final  answer,  with  a  conclusion,  having 
(in  our  judgment)   two  features  which  give  it  a 


22  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

superiority  over  other  answers.  First,  that  their 
answer  satisfied  the  reason  in  the  very  contents  of 
the  answer  itself.  Any  answer  that  excites  a  mind 
to  ask  again,  and  then  rephes  in  the  repetition  of 
its  own  words :  ''  It  is  fit  because  it  is  fit,"  or 
**  right  because  it  is  right,"  in  the  nature  of  tiie 
case  cannot  satisfy.  But  when  the  inquirer  is  told 
that  he  is  morally  bound  to  choose  the  good  of 
being ;  or,  more  fully  stated,  that  the  inU-insic  nature 
and  value  of  the  highest  well-being  of  God  and  of  the 
universe,  is  the  ultimate  ground  of  his  obligation  to 
keep  the  moral  law,  he  has  nothing  further  to  ask ; 
for,  on  turning  to  this  answer  from  others  that  he 
might  get,  he  cannot  but  allow  that  this  is  "fit,"  is 
**  right,"  is  **  according  to  the  will  of  God,"  will 
"promote  his  own  spiritual  efficiency," — what 
you  will,  substantially  every  other  answer  is  here, 
along  with  an  explanatory  reason  which  is  final. 
Secondly,  this  foundation  is  the  one  that  accords 
best  with  the  law  as  revealed, — "  I  am  the  Lord 
thy  God,  thou  shalt  love,'  i.e.,  will  the  good  of ;  and 
practically,  it  works  into  every  detail  of  duty 
within  the  compass  of  the  New  Testament.  Thus, 
the  smallest  duty,  the  giving  of  the  cup  of  cold 
w^ater,  has  the  motive  and  the  sanction  of  the 
greatest  of  all  conceivable  principles  ;  even  as  He 
said,  "  In  doing  it  to  the  needy,  ye  do  it  unto 
Me."  He  is  one  in  the  mass  of  beings  blest  by  the 
lowliest  deed  of  the  lowliest  love.  Tame  is  our 
best  hymn  on  lowly  duty,  after  this: 

"Who  sweeps  a  room  as  for  Thy  law, 
Makes  that  and  the  action  fine.  •' 


THE   OBERLIN   THEOLOGY.  27, 

Do  anything-  on  the  one  grand  ground  of  love, 
and  it  is  done  to  God  and  to  all  sentient  being, — 
*'  well  done,"  as  Christ  affirms. 

Another  great  Scriptural  truth,  a  favorite  with 
the  Oberlin  thinkers,  and  one  of  whose  presenta- 
tion in  an  amended  form,  the  church  stood  in 
need,  is  the  Sovereignty  of  God.  President  Fin- 
ney's treatment  of  this  grand  theme,  has  always 
seemed  to  us  one  of  the  most  attractive  in  his 
theology.  It  certainly  is  of  no  use  now,  and  he 
saw  that  it  was  becoming  useless  then,  to  inculcate 
the  doctrine  of  the  Divine  Sovereignty  by  the 
mere  assertion  of  the  right  to  do  what  one  pleases 
to  do,  because  of  a  supreme  position.  But  there 
being  little  idea  of  sovereignty  under  the  ancient 
despotisms,  other  than  of  a  powerful  and  inflexible 
dominance,  to  be  powerful  and  inflexible  was  argu- 
ment enough  to  exclude  the  thought  of  "  equity," 
or  the  "  rights  of  the  subject,"  from  the  Divine 
Sovereignty  as  from  every  other  sovereignty. 
Since,  however,  the  ruling  ideas  of  one  age  are 
found  to  have  little  force  as  ruling  ideas  in  another, 
men's  ideas  of  the  Divine  Sovereignty — itself  as 
immutably  true,  and  as  justly  valuable  as  ever — 
men's  ideas  of  it  are  more  enlightened,  and  their 
blessings  by  it  are  more  abundant  than  before. 

Expositions  of  moral  government,  with  its  one 
grand  obligation  embracing  sovereign  and  subject 
alike,  aided  greatly  in  dissipating  the  gloom  and 
dread  that  hung  around  the  sovereign's  throne. 
For,  distinguishing,  as  the  Oberlin  theology  did, 
between  supremacy  and  sovereignty,  pointing  out 


24  C BERLIN  JUBILEE. 

the  vast  difference  between  a  benevolently  benefi- 
cient  will  enthroned  to  do  the  best  that  can  be 
done,  and  an  imperial  will  pleasing  itself,  simply 
because  it  had  the  opportunity,  men  were  easily 
taught  to  find  a  hope  in  sovereignty,  when  even 
''  equity"  would  have  brought  despair.  They  saw 
that  a  decree  for  good  to  be  done  to  the  many  who 
can  be  blest,  might  be  passed  by  a  holy  will  right- 
eously enthroned,  when  their  own  devices  and 
desires  might  come  to  naught.  Here  the  power 
of  wisdom  comes  with  the  power  of  might,  and 
the  power  of  love  with  both.  And  so,  *'howe'er 
crowns  and  coronets  be  rent,"  men  may  be  led  to 
sing  with  a  fervor  born  of  their  own  blessings, 

"Before  Jehovah's  awful  throne, 
Ye  nations  bow  with  sacred  joy  !  " 

and  for  reasons  that  the  Psalmist  knew  not  when 
he  first  chanted  them,  they  may  fill  up  his  words 
with  new  emotions  as  they  read,  ^'  I  will  extol 
thee,  My  God,  O  King,  and  I  will  bless  thy  name 
for  ever  and  ever." 

Allied  to  this  treatment  of  Sovereignty,  and  as 
illustrating  the  timeliness  of  these  new  clearances 
of  standard  truths,  take  the  new  presentation  of 
the  Divine  Purposes.  As  taught  by  the  Calvinists 
of  the  New  Testament — if  we  may  thus  distinguish 
them  from  those  whose  Calvinism  seemed  rooted 
and  grounded  in  the  Old  Testament — this  doctrine, 
so  important  in  a  moral  system,  has  been  set  in  a 
most  attractive  light. 

And   certainly,  if  the   Divine   Sovereignty  and 


THE    O BERLIN    THEOLOGY.  25 

Purposes  are  not  shown  to  be  desirable  in  the 
management  of  the  world,  they  are  not  likely  to 
serve  the  end  for  which  they  seemed  revealed. 
Everywhere  in  the  Bible  they  are  introduced  as 
the  crowning-  thought,  the  capping  climax  to  every 
other  blessing  in  possession.  Too  often  by  a  bad 
theological  perspective,  had  they  been  turned 
against  their  declared  ends,  the  glory  of  God  and 
the  fortitude  of  the  soul.  The  method,  therefore, 
of  the  new  adjustment  was  not  in  any  new  textual 
exegesis,  or  even  in  any  marked  change  of  state- 
ment, but  by  the  effects  of  the  exposition  of  the 
new  basis  of  government,  wherein  it  was  seen, 
that  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  the  making  up  of 
the  Sovereign  s  mind — a  well-remembered  definition 
of  purpose — must  be  upon  how  some  greater  good 
might  be  secured.  How  many  confusions,  worse 
confounded  by  efforts  to  be  profound,  does  that 
simple  definition  set  in  order  ?  Why  should  not 
the  Almighty,  All-knowing  Sovereign,  have  the 
priviiege  of  making  up  His  mind  as  to  how  He 
shall  act  in  a  given  case? 

The  Divine  Purposes  come  into  contact  with 
human  life  in  their  co-ordinate  branches  of  Predes- 
tination in  History,  and  Election  in  Grace.  Upon 
this  latter  doctrine,  now  ceasing  to  trouble  the 
Christian  mind  as  it  once  did,  let  it  be  said,  that 
one  of  the  best  elaborations  of  it  in  both  its  practi- 
cal, and  its  speculative  aspects,  is  to  be  found  in 
a  paper  by  Professor  Cowles,  in  the  Oberlin  Evan- 
gelist. 

As   a  piece  of  theological  exposition,  to  many 


26  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

minds  that  presentation  seems  unrivalled.  For  it 
so  manages  the  discussion,  as  to  grant  to  the  most 
exacting  exegete  all  that  the  Scripture  reveals, 
and  satisfies  all  but  those  who  are  not  satisfied 
with  their  common  life.  The  "  sweet  reasonable- 
ness" of  this  appeal  to  human  experience  as  a 
justification  of  electing  grace,  adds  no  small  charm 
to  the  lucidity  and  force  with  which  a  confessedly 
deep  thing  of  God  is  commended  to  the  inquirer. 
And,  as  touching  Predestination  in  events,  the 
course  of  things  will  soon  and  suddenly  turn  awry 
from  their  evident  bent,  if  this  doctrine,  as.  here 
held  and  explained,  is  not  seen  to  be  one  of 
the  prominent  exaltations  of  the  wisdom  and 
power  of  a  creating  God.  To  what  are  we  com- 
ing, or  in  the  thought  of  the  day,  into  what  are  we 
to  be  developed?  Have  we  a  destination?  If  so, 
what  ?  Is  it  known?  Can  it  be  known  ?  Is  there 
one  mind,  even,  that  embraces  the  end  from  the 
beginning  ?  Unless  a  most  conclusive  evidence  of 
unwisdom  is  furnished  in  the  Maker's  masterpiece, 
the  human  mind  (by  His  construction  of  it  to  ask 
for  reasons  of  things,  and  then  deny  them,  or  offer 
it  what  it  will  one  day  see  to  be  unsatisfactory), 
the  things  that  now  are,  are  working  from  some 
point  with  a  unity  of  purpose  ;  and,  while  serving 
many  subordinate  ends,  are  indicatively  bent  upon 
some  further  and  greater  end.  Being  a  conscious 
factor  and  agent  in  this  great  and  diversified 
development,  the  mind  of  man  finds  it  a  most 
satisfying  work,  to  study  and  approve  what  is 
doing  around  it.     In  what  other  mind,  it  is  com- 


THE   OBERLIN   THEOLOGY.  2/ 

pelled  to  ask,  was  all  this  mighty  system  of  evolv- 
ing means  and  ends  lying  from  the  first,  and  by 
v\rhat  intelligence  is  it  guided  ?  This  must  be  an- 
swered from  without  our  own  minds.  Certainly 
we  have  lived  to  know  that  the  answer  is  not  in 
men's  own  minds ;  for  through  all  these  ages,  what 
we  now  see  to  be  an  evolving  universe,  has  ex- 
isted while  as  yet  mankind  had  no  knowledge  of 
it ;  at  one  time  not  even  an  organ  of  knowledge  to 
ply  on  it.  As  it  now  appears,  spanning  the  world's 
life,  from  chaos  to  order,  who  kept  it  till  we  took 
knowledge  of  it  ?  Very  well.  How  sure  are  those 
who  are  now  so  very  certain  that  at  last  the  mys- 
tery of  the  universe  is  solved,  how  sure  are  they 
that  when  the  human  mind  comes  into  another 
and  more  exalted  condition,  that  it  may  not  be  just 
as  certain  that  evolution  is  obsolete,  as  it  is  now 
certain  that  "creation"  is  obsolete. 

This  is  a  thought  which  must  oppress  with  a 
tyranny  of  incertitude,  every  mind  conscious  of 
being  in  the  sweep  of  a  changing  universe  with- 
out any  belief  in  a  predestinating  God.  Strike 
out  the  foundation  of  a  loving  and  faithful 
Creator,  who  is  over  all,  and  blessed  forever 
in  being  so,  and  what  shall  the  righteous  do, 
in  either  science  or  religion?  Place  that  foun- 
dation in  the  scientific  man's  belief,  and  the 
minutest  details  of  his  work,  the  slowest  mo- 
tion and  the  most  terrific  explosion  alike,  to  his 
scientific  eye,  are  clarified,  dignified,  glorified. 
Under  the  overshadowing  thought  of  a  predesti- 
nating God,  the  man  of  science  may  light  his  lamp 


28  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

at  the  taper  on  the  altar  of  the  saint,  and  both 
saint  and  scientist  stand  together  as  they  wait  "  the 
one  far-off  divine  event  to  which  the  whole  crea- 
tion moves,"  and  the  purposes  of  God  are  in  their 
revealed  fact,  the  "  strength  of  the  heart"  to  saint 
and  scientist  alike  ;  in  their  accomplished  details, 
"  the  portion  forever"  to  both  alike. 

But  I  must  speak  on  the  most  practical  of  all  the 
improvements  in  doctrine  as  here  effected.  Omit 
what  I  must,  I  am  not  at  liberty  to  omit  the  doc- 
trine of  Regeneration.  With  it,  logically  and 
experimentally,  stand  connected  Sanctification  and 
Perseverance, — both  most  ably  discussed,  and  both 
yielding  the  richest  of  fruit  in  the  religious  life. 

But,  of  all  the  doctrines  that  seem  to  have  suf- 
fered from  inadequate  exposition,  this  is  the  one. 
Let  any  one  take  down  the  stacks  of  theologies 
in  any  of  the  larger  libraries,  and  passing  writer 
after  writer  under  his  eye  at  where  a  definition 
may  be  expected,  and  he  will  become  painfully  con- 
vinced, that  on  this  vital  subject  those  seemingly  in 
most  need  of  instruction  are  the  instructors  them- 
selves. 

John  Howe  says,  ''  in  regeneration  the  spirit  is 
renewed  not  only  as  cognitive  but  as  active /'  and 
he  goes  on  to  explain  that  he  means  what  almost 
all  his  compeers  try  to  say  they  mean,  that  certain 
constitutive  principles  of  the  soul  are  changed. 

Dr.  Candlish  declares,  in  a  less  ambiguous 
phraseology,  that  not  only  must  *'  I  have  a  Divine 
Saviour,  but  the  hand  by  which  I  take  hold  of 
him  must  be  divine." 


THE    0 BERLIN   THEOLOGY.  2g 

John  Pye  Smith  says,  ''  in  regeneration  new  and 
holy  principles  are  inserted  in  the  soul,  in  which 
the  recipient  is  wholly  passive." 

The  Younger  Edwards  says  his  father's  doctrine 
is,  that  "regeneration  consists  in  the  communica- 
tion of  a  new  spiritual  sense  or  taste." 

Samuel  Hopkins,  who  raises  our  hopes  of  clear- 
ness, says  the  change  is  "  wholly  in  the  heart,  or 
will ;"  and  then  not  keeping  by  that,  he  follows  his 
great  leader,  by  forsaking  his  own  good  statement, 
and  substituting  conflicting  explanations  of  it. 
Dr.  Griffin,  who  certainly  gave  the  doctrine  much 
attention,  quotes  to  disparage  a  notion  of  some, 
that  in  the  change  the  Holy  Spirit  gives  the  soul 
'*  a  something  more  than  light  and  less  than  holi- 
ness." 

Previous  to  Mr.  Finney's  book,  as  the  type  of 
the  newer  thinking,  the  high-water  mark  in  defi 
nition  seems  to  have  been  reached  by  Dr.  Geo. 
Payne,  of  Exeter,  England — a  model  theologian 
for  clearness  and  candor — who,  in  1836,  publishes 
that  ''  regeneration  is  not  a  physical  change,  but 
entirely  of  a  moral  nature."  And  yet  he  cumbers 
his  otherwise  excellent  treatment  by  saying  that 
"  all  the  faculties  and  principles  of  the  soul  must 
be  renewed."  This  is  the  main  vice  of  even  the 
good  writers ;  they  hold  to  the  moral  nature  of  the 
change,  and  then  proceed  to  argue  it  on  a  physical 
basis — the  metaphors  they  never  seem  able  to  use 
as  metaphors,  but  insist  upon  them  implicitly  as 
physical  realities. 

These  quotations  show  how  just  were  the  com- 


30  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

plaints  of  ingenuous  minds  that  upon  this,  and 
kindred  themes,  clear  ideas  and  intelligible  state- 
ments  were  not  within  their  reach.  The  fact  is,  on 
these  theories  the  more  a  man  thought,  the  worse 
for  him.  We  confess,  however,  that  any  theory  of 
regeneration  we  should  suspect  as  shallow  which 
treats  as  a  commonplace  the  profundities  neces- 
sarily connected  with  it.  Yet  we  cannot  but 
sympathize  with  the  effort  here  made  to  show  that 
the  mysteries  of  the  change,  are  not  at  the  point  of 
the  soul's  duty,  to  escape  from  the  old  life  into  the 
new. 

And  it  seems  to  be  here  that  the  new  adjustments 
in  psychology  and  philosophy  had  their  most  fruit- 
ful effects.  Sin,  found  to  be  no  attribute  of  either 
the  physical  or  psychical  constitution, — found  not 
to  be  an  attribute  nor  a  nature  at  all ;  but  action, 
moral,  voluntary,  preferred,  persistent  action,  in 
both  will  and  deed, — and  holiness  the  same,  the 
reasonableness  of  a  change  by  the  truth  as  applied 
by  the  Holy  Spirit  was  very  readily  seen.  By  the 
new  thinkers  it  was  not  only  seen  but  held  to,  and 
so  enforced  as  to  issue  in  such  changes  of  character 
as  met  the  boldest  of  the  Scriptural  demands  for 
the  *'  new  heart,  the  new  life,  the  new  creature." 

And  when  the  real  thing  is  effected,  he  is  a  cap- 
tious critic  indeed  who  maintains  that  it  is  not 
done  well,  unless  done  under  the  names  given  to 
certain  means,  instead  of  being  done  by  the  means 
themselves.  It  is  perhaps  in  this  doctrine,  with  its 
logical  correlates,  moral  depravity  and  inability 
on  one  side,  and  sanctification  and  perseverance 


THE   OBERLIN    THEOLOGY.  3 1 

on  the  other,  that  the  comparative  theologian  will 
find  the  ''  backbone  construction"  of  the  Oberlin 
Theology.  From  it  has  radiated  what  has  in- 
formed the  instructed,  as  well  as  edified  the  unin- 
structed ;  what  has  shattered  the  hopes  of  many 
trusting  to  a  religion  of  their  constitutional  feel- 
ings ;  what  has  haunted  the  soul  of  the  hypocrite 
and  the  fanatic  ;  what  has  put  the  philosophy  of 
religious  revival  on  as  sound  a  basis  as  the  philos- 
ophy of  salvation  itself;  what  has  put  the  work 
of  revival  into  intelligent  forms,  and  has  given 
earnest  souls  the  power  to  prevail  over  the  spirit 
of  man,  by  the  rational  use  of  the  supernatural 
power  of  the  Spirit  of  God — that  has  above  all 
other  expositions  of  the  soul's  contact  with  its  God, 
honored  and  used  the  truth  of  God,  doing  so  not 
by  way  of  a  complimentary  admission  among 
other  more  potent  and  even  miraculous  means, 
but  as  the  living  power  of  the  living  God,  unto 
the  salvation  of  every  one  believing  it  in  the  mean- 
ing of  it,  as  set  forth  in  the  gospel. 

And  this  is  no  unsupported  assertion.  Our  most 
eminent  theologians  at  Andover,  New  Haven,  and 
the  older  schools  of  theology,  as  well  as  of  those 
among  the  princes  of  philosophy  in  New  Eng- 
land, and  Old  England,  and  elsewhere,  have  vol- 
unteered testimony  on  this  point,  that  of  all  our 
text-books  and  references  in  doctrinal  theology, 
no  student  of  this  particular  subject  can  be  put 
upon  what  will  benefit  him  more  in  his  future 
work,  than  upon  a  thorough  mastery  of  this  theme, 
with  its  kindred  topics,  as  elaborated  by  the  Ober- 


32  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

lin  divines.  Not  that  they  have  cleared  it  of  all 
mystery,  but  they  have  put  the  doctrine  into  such 
a  practical  shape  as  makes  the  commendation  of 
it  a  power  in  the  preacher's  hands. 

But  all  this  is  the  merest  commonplace  to  so 
many  here  who,  as  teachers  or  scholars,  have  taken 
part  in  the  making  of  it ;  still  it  is  well  perhaps 
to  mention  it  to-night,  as  part  of  Oberlin's  his- 
tory. 

Here  something  should  be  said  of  the  place 
which  gave  our  theologians  their  opportunity,  and 
the  methods  by  which  they  did  their  work. 

In  these  days  we  are  familiar  with  the  word 
"  environment,"  and  we  are  aware  of  its  power. 
Change  the  ages  and  the  nations  of  Pascal  and 
Bunyan,  and  imagination  fails  to  picture  the 
change  in  the  sort  of  rehgion,  that  each  of  those 
equally  original  and  devout  minds  had  pro- 
mulged.  The  surroundings,  or  rather,  the  lack 
of  surroundings,  as  we  look  at  it  now,  was 
greatly  in  favor  of  the  theologians  who  came  here 
as  the  colony  was  forming.  The  settlers  on  the 
ground,  gathered  as  they  were  as  an  election  of 
the  elect,  were  men  of  a  primitive  faith  and  piety  ; 
they  were  jealous  of  an  alluring  world  ;  they  were 
pioneers  of  a  purer  life  for  the  unbroken  West. 
When  the  future  theologians  of  Oberlin  came 
here,  they  were  in  a  manner  coming  to  their  own 
place,  in  the  sense  of  getting  a  foothold  on  a  suit- 
able spot  for  the  work  they  had  to  do.  What  pre- 
possessions there  were,  were  in  their  favor,  and 
they  had  no  traditions   to    honor,   no  history   to 


THE   0 BERLIN    THEOLOGY.  33 

continue;  they  had  both  to  make  for  themselves 
and  their  successors. 

The  constituents  of  the  old  prophetic  life  were 
here  in  the  plain  living,  the  high  thinking,  the 
seclusion  in  which  to  meditate  on  the  right  and 
wrong  in  the  world  they  had  left,  the  deep  moral 
earnestness  of  minds  of  more  than  ordinary  dimen- 
sions, and  the  frequent  opportunities  of  conference 
and  proclamation  by  which  they  relieved  their 
glowing  souls. 

Speaking  as  they  did,  to  a  willing  circle,  be- 
tween them  and  the  unwilling  world,  they  were 
refreshed. 

Any  suggestions  of  modification  in  their  state- 
ments did  not  reach  them  ''  from  without."  Out- 
side criticisms  of  them  and  of  their  work  were 
even  more  contemptuous  than  those  made  upon 
their  brethren  in  New  England,  who,  on  Andover 
Hill  were  introducing  German  as  an  aid  to  the 
truth,  and  at  New  Haven  were  warring  the  same 
war  against  a  theology  which  seemed  to  be  hin- 
dering the  gospel.  Like  the  many  who  have  fol- 
lowed Paul,  they  had  to  solace  themselves  with 
the  "  wide  and  effectual  door'  opening  to  them, 
and  the  "  many  adversaries." 

But  further,  the  Oberlin  theology  had  in  its  favor 
the  impulse  of  its  propounders'  personal  interest. 
What  was  wrought  upon  the  forges  of  their  brain 
touched  the  things  that  belong  to  the  peace  of 
souls,  in  contact  with  the  high  and  holy  God — 
things  in  which  they  themselves  had  to  think  for 


34  O BERLIN  JUBILEE, 

their  eternal  life.  Here  and  then  there  were  no 
barren  speculations,  no  turning  of  a  scripture 
out  upon  a  desk  to  have  its  contents  handled  as 
if  they  were  colors  or  chemicals,  by  new  com- 
binations of  which,  the  examiner  was  to  get  a 
name.  Here  the  terms  '*  God,"  "  law,"  ''  sin," 
"  holiness,"  were  not  treated  like  algebraic  sym- 
bols in  an  equation.  All  themes  were  burning 
themes,  and  they  were  not  treated  otherwise  than 
as  they  bore  upon  the  truth  for  its  own  sake,  and 
for  the  welfare  of  souls.  Hence,  the  searching 
of  the  soul  itself  for  its  own  contents  ;  the  measur- 
ing ot  the  extent  to  which  it  could  help;  the  search 
of  the  oracles  of  God  ;  the  praying  not  at  God, 
but  to  God  ;  the  probing  of  every  wound ;  the  sift- 
ing of  the  minutest  ingredient  of  the  remedy ;  the 
deep  solicitude  for  the  signs  of  that  remedy's 
powder  in  the  souls  of  men — all  this  was  in  the  the- 
ological method  of  those  early  days ;  and  this  it  is 
that  has  made  the  Oberlin  thinking  palpitate  to 
to  this  hour,  with  the  warmth  of  an  awakened 
heart. 

It  m.ay  be  said  here  that  this  thoroughness  of 
method  in  order  to  reach  the  heart  of  things  helps 
to  account  for  the  fact  that  without  an}^  parade 
of  textual  learning,  the  best  results  of  the  best 
learning,  certamly  the  most  fruitful  results  of  expo- 
sition, came  naturally  into  the  possession  of  those 
who  here  were  taught  to  preach.  The  one  great 
canon  of  interpretation  here  has  ever  been, ''  What 
is  the  thought — what  is  it  when  divested  of  its  pe- 
culiarities, if  it  has  any  peculiarities  ?"     Matthew 


THE   OB E RUN   THEOLOGY.  35 

says,  "  sparrows  are  sold  two  for  a  farthing,  and 
not  one  falls  to  the  ground  but  by  the  Divine 
will.''  Luke  says,  ''  they  are  sold  five  for  two 
farthings,  and  not  one  slips  out  of  the  Divine 
memory /'  both  add,  the  God  who  cares  for  birds 
so  cheap  as  that,  ''  numbers  the  very  hairs  of 
your  head."  Some  exegetes  would  spend  more 
time  in  equalizing  the  price  current  of  the  oriental 
sparrow-market,  than  they  would  upon  the  grand 
thought  of  Divine  care.  And  some  theologians 
reason  as  if  they  would  turn  the  inspiration  of 
such  divinely  consoling  thoughts  upon  the  exact- 
ness or  inexactness  of  the  verbal  shell  of  the  state- 
ment, contending  for  harmony  where  harmony  is 
of  little  account,  and  letting  go  the  weightier  mat- 
ters of  the  blessing  conveyed.  The  straining  out 
of  the  gnat,  and  the  swallowing  of  the  camel,  it 
needs  no  saying,  has  ever  been  an  effective  quota- 
tion here.  And  for  the  reason  that  our  Lord 
quoted  it — namely,  to  maintain  the  highest  fidelity 
to  the  highest  things ;  to  tremble  before  the  words 
of  God  that  have  trembling  in  them  ;  to  let  go 
with  just  the  worth  that  is  in  them,  the  varying 
insignificances  in  the  details  of  style. 

But  it  is  time  to  give  expression  to  some  opinion 
of  Oberlin's  influence  upon  the  reHgious  thought 
and  life  of  the  past  half  century.  If  it  is  too  much 
to  say  Oberlin's  influence,  let  me  change  that  to 
the  ideas  she  has  helped  to  spread. 

As  might  be  expected,  the  connection  alluded 
to  between  the  close  study  of  the  mind's  action 
under  the  truth  and  the  spirit  of  God,  had  great 


36  O BERLIN  JUBILE,E. 

influence  upon  men's  views  of  the  validity  of  the 
human  powers.  There  is  a  greater  respect  paid 
to  reason  in  rehgion  than  there  was  fifty  years 
ago.  Not  that  the  reason  was  here  set  up  as  an 
arbiter  in  things  rehgious,  but  the  reason  was 
honored  at  every  turn  of  an  investigation,  ap- 
pealed to  for  a  judgment,  and  treated  with  respect 
when  it  uttered  a  yea  or  a  nay  upon  a  doctrine 
or  a  duty.  Of  late  years  the  Bible  has  been 
honored  as  provided  for  the  huma'n  mind,  not,  as 
at  one  time,  treated  as  if  the  human  mind  had 
been  made  for  the  Bible. 

We  look  at  those  Avho  stood  on  pillars,  swung 
on  hooks,  and  held  their  limbs  till. the  joints  stiff- 
ened to  death,  as  absurdly  running  counter  to  the 
Divine  intention  in  fashioning  the  body.  There  is 
no  denying  that  frequently  it  used  to  be  thought 
a  virtue  to  treat  the  mind  in  some  such  way  in  its 
action  upon  theological  thought.  It  is  as  far  be- 
hind the  apprehensions  of  this  day  as  the  monastic 
posturings  and  torturings  of  the  body  are  behind 
our  Protestant  ideas  of  religion,  that  God  made 
the  mind  to  have  it  insulted  into  silence  and  dis- 
tortion, to  have  it  made  religious  by  attitude  and 
not  by  action.  Upon  the  admission  of  the  rational 
facilities  to  rational  action  upon  the  great  ques^ 
tion  of  religion,  an  instant  change  took  place  in 
the  modes  of  presenting  and  receiving  rehgious 
truth.  To  present  truth  to  a  mind,  accompanied 
with  a  warning  that  the  mind  as  there  and  then 
addressed  is  not  able  to  apprehend  it  nor  act  upon 
it  aright,  is  equivalent  to  approaching  a  mind  in  its 


•       THE    OBERLIN   THEOLOGY.  37 

normal  activity  with  statements  that  have  no  fitness 
in  them  to  enlighten  or  direct  it.  You  may  as  well 
withhold  the  truth  as  tie  up  the  eye  that  looks  at 
it.  Perhaps  of  all  the  half-century's  religious 
changes,  the  most  popular  has  been  the  change  for 
the  better  in  the  preaching  of  the  gospel.  Ministers 
have  been  enabled  to  turn  their  preaching  into 
what  was  once  happily  called  ''  explanations  of 
what  they  used  to  preach.'' 

As  a  specimen  of  the  changes  coming  by  the 
new  mode  of  preaching,  that  is,  by  this  transmuta- 
tion of  a  stationary  theology  into  an  active  power, 
at  the  risk  of  "  carrying  coals  to  Newcastle"  let 
me  reproduce  the  first  paragraph  of  the  now  cele- 
brated *'  Lectures  on  the  Revivals  of  Religion,"  as 
about  as  good  a  specimen  of  the  changed  address 
of  the  pulpit  as  need  be  quoted.  The  text  is  from 
Habakkuk's  prayer,  ''  O  Lord,  revive  thy  work,  in 
the  midst  of  the  years :  in  the  midst  of  the  years 
make  known :  in  wrath  remember  mercy." 

Homiletically  viewed,  perhaps  the  preacher's 
text  is  likely,  by  the  sound  of  it,  to  suggest 
another  sort  of  a  sermon,  one  to  keep  everything 
of  a  religious  nature  in  the  Lord's  hands,  as  in  sub- 
stance it  calls  religion  "  the  Lord's  work."  But, 
after  a  brief  notice  of  Habakkuk,  the  first  propositi- 
tion  is :  Religion  is  tJie  work  of  niaUj  and  then  fol- 
lows this  characteristic  paragraph  : 

''  Religion  is  something  for  man  to  do.  It  con- 
sists in  obeying  God,  with  and  from  the  heart.  It 
is  man's  duty.  It  is  true,  God  induces  him  to  do 
it.     He  influences  him  by  his  spirit  because  of  his 


38  OB  EN  LIN  JUBILEE. 

f^reat  wickedness  and  reluctance  to  obey.  If  it 
were  not  necessary  for  God  to  influence  men — if 
nien  were  disposed  to  obey  God,  there  would  be 
no  occasion  for  the  prophet  to  pray,  "  O  Lord, 
revive  thy  work.''  The  ground  of  necessity  for 
such  a  prayer  is  that  men  are  wholly  indisposed 
to  obey ;  and  unless  God  interpose  the  influence 
of  his  spirit,  not  a  man  on  earth  will  ever  obey 
God." 

What  a  change  thus  comes  over  the  view  taken 
of  that  scripture  by  the  average  Protestant  theo- 
logian of  fifty  years  ago.  Then,  people  were 
startled  by  the  assertion,  **  Religion  is  the  Avork  of 
man,"  and  conservative  theological  minds  thought 
they  had  good  reason  to  be  startled  lest  their  own 
inability  to  be  religious  should  be  taken  from 
them.  But,  take  the  paragraph  as  a  whole,  here 
is  deadness  in  sin,  with  a  more  terrible  import 
than  a  deadness  in  an  inability  to  do  anything  but 
sin  ever  conveyed.  Here  is  a  willingly  living 
death,  out  of  which  God  alone  can  induce  a  man 
to  come.  It  is  assumed  here,  as  man  himself 
assumes,  not  only  that  he  can  come  out  of  it  if  he 
will,  but  as  Dr.  Taylor  used  to  say,  ''  He  can  if 
he  wont;"  and  there  he  is,  and  knows  he  is. 

And  now  comes  the  grand  magnification  of 
sovereign  grace,  in  the  inducements  presented  to 
get  the  soul  over  to  the  new  obedience, — a  far 
grander  achievement  this,  to  win  over  an  unwilling 
mind,  than  to  raise  from  decrepitude  a  helpless 
imbecile. 

The   logic  of  this   movement  in   behalf  of  the 


THE   0 BERLIN   THEOLOGY.  39 

mind  as  approached  with  truth,  led  the  brethren 
here  to  pursue  it  into  the  continued  connection 
of  the  mind  with  the  truth  ;  in  other  words,  to 
urge  the  new  emancipations  into  the  sphere  of 
Christian  experience.  They  took  more  than  one 
view  of  the  extent  of  the  atonement  and  of  the 
work  of  the  Spirit,  while,  with  others,  they  were 
interested  in  the  question,  "  For  whom  did  Christ 
die,"  i.e.,  for  a  few  men  or  for  all  men?  They  be- 
came just  as  deeply  interested  in  the  question, 
For  what  does  Christ  liv^e?  for  a  deliverance  from 
a  few  sins,  or  from  all  sin.  The  depth  of  the 
world's  ills  as  well  as  their  breadth,  came  before 
their  minds  and  agitated  their  hearts.  Out  with 
the  gospel  to  all  the  units  of  the  race  they  urged 
the  church  to  go :  in  with  it  upon  every  sin  of  the 
soul,  they  maintained  it  was  but  just  to  Christ  to 
send  it. 

From  the  first  of  the  inquiry  on  the  possibility 
of  a  rational  hope  of  freedom  from  sin  Oberlin  had 
no  choice  of  positions.  By  all  that  she  had  come 
through,  not  hers  was  the  inquiry,  "  With  how 
little  holiness  can  I  keep  in  the  Church  Catholic?" 
but  rather,  **  seeing  that  the  soul  is  free  to  the 
saving  truth,  and  that  the  Holy  Spirit  is  within 
call,  and  that  all  fulness  is  in  Christ,  with  how 
much  of  HLs  power  in  me  can  I  be  blest  in  this 
life  ?  " 

What  liberty  she  had  gained  was  not  to  be  used 
by  her  "for  an  occasion  to  the  flesh,"  but  to  the 
spirit.  If  Christ  had  set  before  the  soul  the  liberty 
of  abstinence,  it  Avas  hers  to  enter  into  it. 


40  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

And  now  that  a  generation  has  come  and  gone, 
and  the  voice  of  the  controversialist  has  ceased 
over  this  matter,  there  seems  to  be  but  one 
historic  deliverance  to  make  upon  it,  namely, 
that  declining  to  be  answerable  for  the  aber- 
rations of  eccentric  minds,  and  the  extrav- 
agances of  the  unbalanced,  and  the  inferences 
drawn  from  the  mistakes  of  the  sincere,  and  the 
misconduct  of  the  hypocritical,  Oberlin  has  no 
reason  to  be  ashamed  of  her  position  upon  the 
possible  thoroughness  of  Christian  living.  All 
departments  of  life  suffer  degradation  by  the 
lowering  of  ideals,  by  infirmity  of  purpose,  by  lack 
of  courage,  by  the  quenching  of  hope.  And, 
while  it  was  on  none  of  those  considerations  that 
she  based  her  doctrine  of  santification,  but  upon 
the  word  of  God,  the  atonement  of  Christ,  the 
power  and  promise  of  the  Spirit, — yet  every  one  of 
those  considerations,  used  with  such  power  in 
other  achievements,  she  had  in  her  favor,  in  testi- 
fying to  the  purifying  power  of  the  gospel  be- 
lieved. And,  as  a  historical  result,  the  influence 
of  her  testimony  seems  to  be  unquestionably  in 
favor  of  the  church's  general  advance  against  sin 
rather  than  in  favor  of  her  further  yielding  to  it. 
But  Oberlin  has  done  more  than  reform  and 
advance  certain  aspects  of  theology  :  she  has  been 
eminently  useful  in  conserving  what  is  vital  in 
theology,  and  in  restraining  evils  that  have  not 
ceased  to  threaten  it.  In  fact,  the  reformer  is  the 
true  conservative.  For,  conservatism  is  the  pres- 
ervation of  things  in  the  meaning  of  the-m :  ref- 


THE   OBERLIJV    THEOLOGY,  4 1 

ormation  is  the  separation  of  what  has  become 
factitious  in  connection  with  them.  If  a  man  will 
never  reform  anything,  soon,  by  letting  the 
course  of  providence  go  along  without  him,  he 
will  become  a  radical.  Let  any  one  now-a-days 
start  into  action  the  theologies  of  the  twelfth 
century,  or  even  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
and  he  will  instantly  bloom  out  into  a  modern 
heretic :  his  notions  of  atonement,  grace,  and 
redemption  would  be  the  greatest  novelty  of 
this  so-called  age  of  novelty.  A  bare  enumera- 
tion of  a  few  points  conserved  by  the  Oberlin 
theologians  is  all  that  is  possible, — enough  to 
show  that  they  were  not  inconoclasts  but  pre- 
servers of  the  truth,  not  crusaders  against  any 
good  order,  but  valiant  against  what  hindered  the 
order  of  the  gospel. 

Take  first  their  preservation  of  religious  re- 
vivals from  a  humanitarian  sentimentalism.  View- 
ing them  as  they  did,  under  grand  conceptions  of 
law,  of  God,  of  universal  well-being,  the  human 
sensibilities  were  not  appealed  to  as  if  the  spiritual 
dynamic  of  revival  was  to  be  found  in  them. 
Hence  the  absence  of  all  coaxing,  wheedling, 
weakly  pathetic  measures  in  the  religious  move- 
ments of  the  bye-gone  years.  "  Good,"  as  here 
explained,  did  not  mean  the  pleasures  of  heaven,  nor 
even  a  life  of  sweet  content  on  the  earth  :  "  evil,"  as 
here  explained,  did  not  mean  the  woes  of  hell  nor 
any  other  penalty  of  sin,  and  that  only.  Sin  was 
not  shown  to  be  wrong  because  it  was  hideous, 
but  hideous  because  it  was  wrong.     Hence,  under 


42  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

the  truth  so  powerfully  presented  on  the  grounds 
that  the  soul,  by  its  very  make,  must  honor,  the 
weakness  of  what  is  incidental  to  the  individual, 
was  always  overruled  for  good  to  the  whole. 

Again,  the  deep  reverence  in  which  the  word  of 
revelation  has  ever  been  held,  has  fended  off  the 
approaches  of  an  injurious  mysticism.  To  some, 
there  has  ever  appeared  a  danger  in  allowing  to 
the  human  powers  a  native  ability  to  judge  of 
this,  and  to  decide  upon  that,  in  the  sphere 
of  religion.  And  an  opening  of  the  flood-gates  of 
enthusiasm  and  delusion  has  been  foretold,  if  men 
are  encouraged  to  accept  and  act  upon  their  own 
decisions  upon  the  revealed  word. 

The  firm  hold  here  taken  of  the  fact  that  if  men 
are  born  of  the  Spirit,  it  is  by  the  truth, the  Spirit's 
means;  that  the  truth  is  the  testimony  of  Christ 
and  to  Christ;  that  he  who  is  off  from  the  truth  of 
God  on  the  plea  of  his  own  inward  illumination, 
and  that  alone  is  following  a  false  light,  has  been  a 
perpetual  safeguard  against  the  alleged  fanaticisms 
predicted  by  the  wise  in  the  wisdom  of  this 
world. 

And  if  we  mistake  not,  the  positions  maintained 
here  have  anticipated  objections,  not  so  clearly  in 
view  at  the  founding  of  Oberlin  as  they  are  now. 
It  is  the  reproach  of  the  scientific  mind  that  the 
theological  mind  does  not  seek  what  is  true  but 
what  is  already  dogma.  There  is  one  evangelical 
system,  yes  more  than  one,  which  asks  no  more 
than  what  all  science  must  have  in  order  to  a  be- 
ginning, namely,  an  object  of  thought  and  a  mind 


THE   OBERLIN    THEOLOGY.  43 

to  think  with.  Here  is  a  theology  whose  postulates 
are  the  human  mind  and  a  book  called  the  Bible, 
taken  at  first  simply  as  phenomena.  How  does  the 
mind  work?  What  does  the  Bible  say?  What 
influence  has  the  Bible  on  the  mind?  Test,  try, 
compare,  reason,  read  history,  go  through  the 
processes  of  thought  and  feeling,  put  things  into 
syllogistic  forms  if  you  will,  sift  and  state  after 
the  scientific  method,  and  the  product  is  a  the- 
ology as  rational  as  it  is  reverent,  as  conclusively 
satisfying  in  its  own  sphere  as  any  other  depart- 
ment of  truth  capable  of  as  thorough  treatment  in 
its  own  sphere.  It  has  not  been  left  to  the  Atheist 
to  say  with  truth  that  no  Christian  thinkers  seek 
the  truth  for  its  own  sake,  but  for  their  doctrines, 
sake.  Furthei,  we  deem  Oberlin  theology  pre- 
servative against  a  loss  to  evangelical  religion  by 
the  destructive  analyses  of  texts  and  the  overdone 
criticisms  of  words,  by  which  it  is  supposed  that 
doctrine  must  vanish  with  the  vanishing  of  the 
tortured  victims  of  the  exegetical  rack  and  stake. 
Granting  that  terms  are  made  void  and  that  words 
are  shown  to  have  lost  certain  former  contents; 
granting  that  much  lexical  and  grammatical  exact- 
ness has  been  heretical — new  manipulations  of 
words  like  the  ''absolute"  and  the  '' eternal,"  or 
changed  metaphysical  views  of  them,  do  not  change 
the  great  principles  of  human  thought  that  are  as 
certain  as  moral  agency  itself.  There  are  such 
things  as  light  and  darkness,  good  and  evil,  bitter 
and  sweet — not  absolutely  dependent  on  the 
terms  that  tell  of  them — they  may  be  put  one  for 


44  O BERLIN  JUBILEE. 

another  in  the  legerdemain  of  a  rhetorical  learning-, 
but  not  without  a  ''  woe"  coming  to  testify  to  the 
danger  of  the  exchange.  And  we  all  know  where 
Oberlin  stands  on  this  matter,  and  of  what  value 
is  her  *'  reasoned  truth"  in  any  attempt  to  make 
''  the  word  of  God  of  none  effect."  And  another 
objection  Oberlin  seems  to  have  anticipated, 
and  to  have  helped  a  wholesome  conservatism 
to  meet — that  coming  out  of  the  proposal  to  have 
a  religion  without  law,  and  without  divinity, 
and  without  any  morality  having  sanctions  ex- 
tending into  the  future  life.  Of  the  provision 
for  such  a  proposal  in  the  elaboration  of  a  religion 
of  law,  law  eternal  in  the  very  make  of  .things, 
with  sanctions  as  lasting  as  the  law  itself,  no  mat- 
ter in  what  world  the  subject  of  law  may  dwell; 
of  a  redemption  from  sin  begetting  those  emo- 
tions of  soul  without  which  any  spiritual  religion 
is  vain — who,  knowing  anything  of  what  was  done 
here,  does  not  see  how  absurd  becomes  the  pro- 
posal to  meet  the  deep  wants  of  the  soul  by  any 
kind  of  a  culture  that  leaves  out  God  and  the 
moral  law,  as  the  powers  under  which  the  soul 
must  move  in  order  to  its  highest  and  best  devotion. 
To  conclude  this  sketch  of  what  has  come  to  the 
world  from  the  theology  of  these  past  years  in 
this  place,  let  me  say  that  the  half  has  not  been 
told,  nor  even  hinted  at.  That  were  as  impossible 
as  to  fill  a  historical  paper  with  original  concep- 
tions, or  to  speak  of  a  plain  and  hard-working 
pnst  in  a  decorative  rhetoric.  Enough  may  have 
been  said,  however,  to  recall  where  the  lines  of 


THE    OBERLIN    THEOLOGY.  45 

the  first  thinking  ran,  and  what  the  theological 
spirit  of  the  past  sought  to  embody.  Theo- 
logically, there  are  three  prominent  factors  of  an 
enhghtened  Protestantism  to  which  Oberlin  stands 
as  a  witness,  not  by  her  teaching  only,  but  by  her 
historic  life.  First,  to  the  progressive  nature  of 
Christian  thought.  Ending  one  semi-centennial  of 
an  honorable  and  honored  career,  an  eminent 
American  theologian  gave  it  as  one  cause  of 
thankfulness  that  he  could  not  recall  the  origina- 
tion of  any  new  ideas,  while  the  teaching  was 
under  his  direction.  This  is  quoted  for  the  sake  of 
the  grave  assumption  underlying  it,  namely,  that 
the  course  of  Protestant  thinking  has  been  run. 
By  such  a  conception,  the  Reformation  was  the 
goal  of  theology.  To  other  reverent  thinkers  it 
appears  rather  to  be  the  starting  post.  Common- 
places upon  progress  and  evolution  I  shall  not 
detain  you  with.  But,  if  we  are  workers  together 
with  God,  in  all  reason  we  are  not  very  busy  if 
in  His  providence  he  indicates  that  He  has  gone 
on  half  a  century  ahead  of  former  effort,  and  we 
are  remaining  at  work  half  a  century  behmd 
Him.  There  is  constant  change  by  the  percala- 
tions  and  innoculations  of  ideas,  but  there  is  also 
crisis,  birth,  growth,  and  even  rending  by  convul- 
sion and  explosion.  Oberhn,  in  her  own  short 
life,  knows  of  them  all,  and  can  pass  the  word 
down  to  others  in  all  manner  of  change,  "  Fear 
not ;  if  God  be  for  us,  what  can  be  against  us  ?" 

Another  idea  this  place  stands  to  present  to  the 
Church    of    Christ,    namely,    the    true   nature    ot 


4^  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

Christian  unity.  Historically,  Oberlin's  testi- 
raony  is  effective  on  this  point.  And  that,  too,  by 
the  way  she  has  been  treated.  At  one  time  she 
had  hardly  a  name  to  live  among  evangelical 
thinkers ;  her  students  were  not  considered  sound 
enough  in  the  faith  to  carry  the  gospel  abroad ; 
she  had  but  a  partial  share  of  the  comity  generally 
shown  to  other  ecclesiastical  communities ;  but  in 
all  this  difference  of  opinion,  which  was  but  tem- 
porary, she  has  never  herself  broken,  nor  has  she 
ever  had  to  complain  of  any  serious  violation  of 
the  unity  of  the  spirit  of  Christian  love.  The 
manners  of  many  were  rude  and  insulting,  the 
opinions,  the  judgments,  the  fears,  the  hopes  of 
others  were  varied;  but  when  the  real  root  of  the 
spiritual  life  i5  reached,  she  has  generally  had  her 
recognition  as  one  in  the  body  of  Christ,  and  a 
member  in  particular.  And  this  is  said  to  teach 
patience  with  differing  opinion,  in  order  to  the 
keeping  of  the  unity  of  the  spirit.  Mercifully 
were  the  congregational  brotherhood  kept  from 
exscinding  such  men  as  Moses  Stuart,  N.  W. 
Taylor,  Charles  G.  Finney,  Horace  Bushnell,  and 
others,  who,  ''holding  the  head,"  yet  ventured  to 
differ  from  other  portions  of  the  body  of  Christ. 
And  tor  what,  under  God,  were  these  men  spared 
and  counted  in  the  Christian  Church  ?  To  pre- 
serve that  church  from  the  very  evils  they  were 
blamed  for  introducing.  Who  to-day  is  not  glad 
that.  Christian  scholarship,  and  a  believing  reason- 
ing, and  a  widening  view  of  Christ  and  his  salvation, 
were  led  into  the  vision  ol  the  church  by  these 


THE   0 BERLIN    THEOLOGY.  4/ 

very  men?  And  patience  to  see  these  things  is 
just  as  necessary  as  are  these  things  to  be  seen. 
Even  Oberlin  has  had  to  have  patience  with  her- 
self. We  smile  now  at  good  Father  Keep's  cast- 
ing vote  in  order  to  the  admission  of  the  colored 
students.  If  Oberlin  had  then  had  her  own 
doctrine  on  the  foundation  of  moral  obligation 
fully  expounded,  such  a  trembling  in  the  balances 
of  an  Oberlin  judgment  had  not  been  possible. 

There  is  a  time  when  all  carelessly  think  alike ; 
then  there  comes  a  time  of  difference ;  then  the 
issue  is  a  union  again  on  the  truth.  And  that  the 
union  is  a  union  in  advance,  we  are  here  to  testify. 
The  missionary  societies  are  here  to  ordain  men 
for  work  once  refused  to  them  ;  sundered  churches 
on  the  dividing  issues  are  one  again  ;  Oberlin  is 
honored  in  all  the  land,  her  students  welcome  in 
every  school ;  some  of  her  reforms  the  nation  has 
come  up  to,  on  others  the  general  regret  is  that 
they  are  not  secured.  No  church  that  we  know 
of  is  going  back  to  limited  atonement,  to  human 
inability,  to  physical  action  on  moral  agents.  In 
New  England,  Taylor  men  are  in  Tyler  pulpits, 
and  Tyler  men  in  Taylor  pulpits;  nearer  home 
Andover  men  are  in  Oberlin  pulpits,  and  Oberlin 
men  in  Andover  pulpits;  and  what  congregation 
knows  which  is  which? 

The  third  testimony  of  Oberlin  to  the  churches 
is  upon  the  power  of  devoted  character  in  the 
redemption  of  the  world.  Here  all  her  children 
arise  to  bless  her,  that  if  she  taught  them  right- 
eousness, it  was   not  that   they  might   live    in   a 


48  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

luxury  of  sentimental  righteousness,  but  that  in 
lov.e  they  might  serve  the  whole  world,  the  de- 
spised portions  of  it  in  particular.  As  to  Oberlin's 
dreaded  "  ethics  of  interest,"  let  their  fruits 
rectify  her  critics'  mistakes^-the  Mississippi  valley 
can  speak,  so  can  the  missionary  fields  abroad,  so 
can  the  black  man  at  home  and  far  away.  But  it 
is  of  Oberlin's  witness  to  a  great  fact  in  her 
own  history  that  this  conclusion  is  spoken. 
This  is  the  night  for  a  tribute  of  honor  to  the 
devoted  lives  that  imparted  to  all  here  those 
unseen  but  not  unfelt  convictions  that  should 
ever  accompany  all  reasoning  upon  moral  ideas. 
The  Oberlin  of  the  past  can  testify  to  the  power  of 
men  who,  like  Charles  James  Fox,  urged  reasons 
that  were  all  feeling,  and  showed  feelings  that  were 
all  reason ;  men  who,  at  one  time,  in  the  sweetness 
of  a  divine  unction,  would  worship  before  God, 
like  the  child  Samuel  in  his  linen  ephod,  and  at 
another  time,  like  the  same  Samuel,  grown  toman's 
estate,  '^  hew  an  Agag  in  pieces  before  the  Lord." 
The  four  grand  men,  Finney,  Cowles,  Mahan, 
Morgan,  who  came  here  to  lead  in  the  theological 
instruction,  have  gone  apart  from  us,  but  their  im- 
press is  still  on  this  place  and  on  this  generation. 

"  Were  a  star  quenched  on  high 
For  ages  would  its  light 
Still  travelling  downward  from  the  sky. 
Shine  on  our  mortal  sight. 

So  when  a  great  man  dies, 

For  years  beyond  our  ken, 

The  light  he  leaves  behind  him,  lies 

Upon  the  paths  of  men." 


THE   OBERLIN   THEOLOGY.  49 

These  men  had  too  much  to  say,  and  they  had 
too  much  urgency  in  the  saying  of  it,  to  be  free 
from  mistake.  They  were  subjected  to  those  social 
and  ecclesiastical  shocks  which  send  men  out  to 
compare  their  views  with  universal  truth,  and  they 
came  back  with  more  truth  if  with  less  social  and 
ecclesiastical  prestige ;  they  have  to  be  numbered 
among  the  greatly  daring  and  the  strongly  doing, 
who  have  advanced  the  world  more  than  the 
distrustfully  critical.  They  will  live  in  the  mem- 
ory of  the  church  as  men  of  thought  and  men  of 
action,  but  more  fully  in  its  memory  as  men  of 
God,  who  sought,  like  their  divine  Master,  not 
only  to  instruct  but  to  impart  life. 

But  one  of  the  group,  Dr.  John  Morgan,  lives 
within  the  influence  of  this  hour.  It  will  be  the 
supreme  satisfaction  of  this  jubilee  if  he  shall  be 
here  to  see  the  crown  of  a  fifty  years'  success  upon 
the  head  of  his  beloved  Oberlin.  As  her  sons  call 
down  the  peace  of  God  upon  her,  they  ask  it  also 
upon  him — even  a  reflection  of  the  peace  that 
"  mantled  on  the  crowned  brow  that  went  through 
Gethsemane." 


ADDRESS  OF  EX-PRESIDENT  R.  B.  HAYES, 

At  the  close  of  the  Commencement  Exercises  of  the  Theological 
Department,  Saturday,  June  30. 

Mr.  President  :  Professor  Ellis  announced  last 
evening  that  the  audience  on  this  occasion  might 
hear  ''  a  word  "  from  President  Hayes.  I  under- 
stood, of  course,  that  the  phrase  "  a  word  "  was 
capable  of  large  expansion.  And  yet  I  had  a  feel- 
ing of  relief  when  Professor  Wright,  in  presenting 
me  to  this  audience,  removed  all  limitation  upon 
the  observations  I  may  submit  to  you. 

These  Jubilee  days  belong  peculiarly,  and  almost 
exclusively,  to  the  sons  and  daughters  of  Oberlin. 
They  can  say  with  enthusiasm,  and  with  warmest 
attachment  and  gratitude,  whatever  it  is  fitting 
to  say  in  behalf  of  this  college.  Speaking  for  the 
outsiders,  I  may,  I  trust,  without  the  least  embar- 
rassment, ask  you  to  listen  for  a  moment  to  one 
who  has  not  the  good  fortune  to  belong  to  the 
Oberlin  family  circle. 

I  cannot  undertake  to  consider  in  detail  so  large 
a  topic  as  the  work  and  the  ideas  of  Oberlin.  But 
to  speak  briefly  one's  mind  about  this  college  and 
the  debt  our  whole  country  owes  to  it  for  what  it 
has  done  during  the  last  fifty  years,  needs  little 
preparation.     Among  the  distinctive  and  valuable 


ADDRESS   OF  EX-PRESIDENT  HA  YES.  5  I 

Oberlin  ideas  I  will  mention  only  a  few.  After 
the  masterly  and  powerful  address  of  Prof.  Bar- 
bour, last  evening,  on  the  Theology  of  Oberlin 
— and  in  view  of  the  satisfactory  and  creditable 
graduating  speeches  on  the  same  general  subject, 
by  the  young  gentlemen  who  have  so  well  enter- 
tained us  this  morning — I  will  touch  only  upon 
secular  topics. 

One  of  the  ideas  of  this  college,  especially  im- 
portant in  our  times  and  in  our  country,  is  the 
demonstration  it  has  given  that  sound  scholarship 
and  that  training  which  leads  to  the  best  manhood 
and  womanhood,  can  be  had  without  large  endow- 
ment or  extravagant  expenditure.  Oberlin  is  not 
munificently  endowed,  but  every  dollar  bestowed 
has  been  made  to  count  at  its  full  value.  No 
where  else  has  the  money  given  or  expended 
gone  so  far  or  yielded  so  large  a  return  as  here 
at  Oberhn. 

Again,  Oberlin  has  practically  proved  that 
young  men  and  young  women  can  be  educated 
together  by  the  same  instructors,  and  in  the  same 
classes,  up  to  the  highest  standard  of  collegiate 
learning,  not  merely  without  harm  to  habits  and 
character,  but  with  an  added  strength  to  those 
sentiments  and  virtues  which  are  essential  to  the 
welfare  of  society  and  the  happiness  of  the  home. 

Oberlin  is  the  pioneer  college  to  teach  that 
young  people,  white  and  colored,  can  be  educated 
under  the  same  roof,  on  terms  of  perfect  equality, 
with  no  loss  of  self-respect  or  dignity,  but  with 
that    increase   of    both    which    always    follows   a 


52  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

hearty  acceptance  of  the  teachings  and  example 
of  the  Divine  Master. 

Oberlin  has  been  something-  more  and  some- 
thing better  than  an  institution  of  learning.  It 
has  been  a  school  of  patriotism,  and  a  school  which 
has  stood  steadfastly,  in  peace  and  in  war,  in  the 
front  rank  of  those  who  were  fighting  for  the 
brotherhood  of  man.  In  every  campaign,  in  every 
battle,  and  in  every  forward  march  of  the  great 
conflict  with  slavery,  this  college  was  always  at 
the  head  of  the  column.  Oberlin  carried  the  flag 
in  the  time  that  tried  men's  souls  ;  now,  in  the  hour 
of  victory,  let  Oberlin  wear  the  crown. 

I  shall  never  forget  the  affecting  scene  when, 
for  the  first  time,  I  and  the  young  soldiers 
who  were  with  me,  met  a  number  of  Union 
soldiers,  who  had  been  wounded  and  made 
prisoners  in  one  of  the  disastrous  engagements  in 
the  early  part  of  the  war.  The  men  we  met 
were  from  Oberlin.  They  had  been  wounded  and 
captured  at  Cross  Lanes,  in  Virginia.  We  heard 
nothing  from  those  men  that  was  not  worthy  of 
Oberlin.  They  were  pale  and  weak  and  suffering, 
but  they  uttered  no  word  which  their  dearest 
friends  at  home — which  Oberlin  would  not  be  glad 
and  proud  to  hear  them  speak.  Their  unshaken 
faith,  in  the  midst  of  fearful  disasters  and  discou- 
ragements, that  the  good  cause  would  finally  tri- 
umph, and  their  heroic  willingness  to  die  for  it, 
were  the  fruit  of  their  Oberlin  life.  God  bless 
Oberlin ! 


RE-UNION  OF  THEOLOGICAL  ALUMNL 


OPENING  ADDRESS. 

BY    REV.    M.    W.   FAIRFIELD,    '47, 

Muskegon,  Mich. 
First  Church,  Saturday,  June  30th,  2  p.m. 

Brethren  of  the  Theologieal  Ahcmni: 

We  meet  this  day  on  a  most  interesting  occa- 
sion. Just  fifty  3^ears  have  elapsed  since  the  found- 
ing— may  I  not  ^'^y  finding — of  this  school  of  the 
prophets,  at  once  an  incredibly  long  and  short 
period.  It  has  been  the  most  noted  fifty  years  in 
the  world's  history.  A  little  more  than  fifty  years 
ago  a  small  lad  heard,  with  scornful  incredulity, 
from  an  older  boy  in  the  school,  the  statement  that 
recently  there  had  been  invented  in  England  a 
carriage  that  would  go  without  horses;  and  he 
rephed,  with  appropriate  and  undisguised  disgust, 
''  Harv.,  you  can't  fool  me  with  that  yarn  !"  And 
yet  to-day  the  railway  threads  in  every  direction 
all  civiHzed  countries  on  the  globe ;  and  even  the 
sleeping  hills  around  about  the  Holy  City  are  soon 
to  be  awakened  from  the  slumber  of  the  centuries 
by  the  shrill  whistle  of  the  locomotive.  The 
progress  along  this  line  of  railway  is  representa- 
tive of  the  advancement  along  every  other  line, 
material  and  intellectual  and  social,  during  these 
fifty  3^ears. 


54  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

One  of  the  most  influential  agencies  in  advancing 
all  valuable  interests  aixi  effecting  all  great  improve- 
ments in  our  own  country,  and  indirectly  in  the 
w^ide  world,  during  this  half  century,  is  this  school 
and  theological  seminary.  Their  relation  to  the 
higher  education  of  women,  to  the  joint  education 
of  the  sexes,  to  the  dignity  of  labor,  to  the  equality 
of  men,  to  the  overthrow  of  slavery,  and,  what  is 
especially  pertinent  to  re-call  at  this  hour  and  this 
reunion  of  our  theological  alumni,  their  relation  to 
a  sound  and  vitalized  and  vitalizing  theology,  has 
given  to  this  school  and  seminary  their  honorable 
and  potential  place  in  the  annals  of  the  last  fifty 
years. 

Forty  years  ago  one  of  the  sagacious  students 
in  this  seminary,  at  a  time  when  Oberlin  theology 
was  everywhere  spoken  against,  said  to  Professoi* 
Finney  in  one  of  those  free  conversations  so  much 
encouraged  by  that  remarkable  man,  "  In  less  than 
fifty  years  Oberlin  will  be  the  bulwark  of  a 
sound  theology  in  the  Congregational  Churches  of 
America!"  The  remark  was  received  by  the  pro- 
fessor with  one  of  those  ringing  and  incredulous 
laughs,  again  and  again  repeated,  which  only  Pro- 
fessor Finney  could  laugh!  But  what  do  we  see 
within  the  lapse  of  forty  years?  A  literal  and 
recognized  fulfillment  of  the  bold  prediction !  If 
Saul  was  not  then  among  the  prophets,  Michael 
surely  was,  and  his  presence  here  to-day  gives 
special  satisfaction  to  his  younger  brethren,  who 
have  not  yet  attained  to  the  prophetic  afflatus. 


RE- UNION  OF    THEOLOGICAL   ALUMNL  55 

There  have  been  three  elements  in  the  theology 
of  this  seminary  which  have  given  to  it  its  wide- 
reaching  influence. 

First  and  foremost,  it  has  always  been  intensely, 
not  superstitiously  or  fetichly,  but  intensly  biblical^ 
thanks  to  the  eminent  biblical  and  general  scholar- 
ship, unqualified  fidelity,  the  noble  enthusiasm,  the 
devout  love,  and  the  remarkable  felicity  of  inter- 
pretation of  the  One  Book  of  that  greatly  beloved 
and  honored  instructor.  Dr.  John  Morgan. 

It  has  ever  been  pre-eminently  true  of  this  Ober- 
lin  theology  that  it  has  bowed  reverently  and  un- 
questioningly  to  the  clear  teachings  of  the  Sacred 
Scriptures.  Whenever  there  has  been  found  a 
thiLssaith  the  Lord,  that  has  been  the  end  of  con- 
troversy and  the  inspiration  to  action.  This 
supreme  loyalty  to  the  Word  has  been  an  element 
of  supreme  power.  God  grant  that  it  may  ever 
abide  here ! 

Secondly,  the  theology  of  this  seminary  has 
been  clear  and  incisive.  Whatever  criticism  may  be 
passed  upon  this  theology,  it  cannot  be  said  that  it 
is  mystical.  That  characteristic  which  Dr.  Lyman 
Beecher,  in  his  famous  plea  for  the  American  Col- 
lege, said  belonged  to  the  knowledge  even  of  some 
so-called  educated  people,  as  ''knowing  things 
pretty  nearly  almost,"  never  belonged  to  the 
theology  taught  here.  When  one  of  its  earlier 
students  was  being  examined  for  installation  over 
a  Congregational  church  in  old  Berkshire,  Mass., 
and  it  was  desired  by  a  dissenting  small  minority 


$6  OBERLIN  JUBILEE, 

to  defeat  his  installation,  and  for  this  purpose  a 
former  professor  in  East  Windsor  Seminary  was 
summoned  from  a  distance  to  be  on  the  council, 
the  answer  to  the  many  and  searching  and  per- 
plexing questions  put  by  the  professor,  while 
not  altogether  satisfactory  to  him  as  to  their 
soundness,  were  such  as  to  lead  the  learned  doctor 
to  say  to  the  council  that  "  Whatever  we  may 
think  about  the  positions  which  this  young  man 
takes,  we  must  all  concede  that  he  thoroughly  under- 
stands himself,  and  knows  exactly  what  he  believes^ 
which  is  more  than  some  of  us  can  say  of  our- 
selves ! "  This  compliment  was  well  deserved,  and 
it  belongs  in  like  manner  to  the  average  Oberlin 
theological  graduate. 

I  am  inclined  to  think  that  the  reason  Oberlin 
theologians  throughout  the  country  so  generally 
sympathize  with  the  retired  Andover  Abbott  pro- 
fessor of  theology,  in  his  valiant  defence  of  the 
old  faith,  may  be  found  at  this  point — in  his 
approximation  to  the  Oberlin  standard  of  clear- 
ness and  incisiveness.  Some  years  ago,  so  the 
story  runs,  when  Professor  Park  was  in  Germany, 
he  got  into  an  animated  discussion  of  agnosticism 
with  a  Prussian  philosopher  of  the  rationalistic 
school.  The  Prussian  gave  a  de^^finition.  The  pro^ 
fessor  desired  a  definition  of  the  definition.  When 
this  was  given,  he  still  asked  for  a  definition  of  the 
second  definition,  and  the  answer  lacking  incisive- 
ness, he  pressed  his  Prussian  friend  for  further  and 
still  further   elucidation,  till  at  last  the  sluggish 


RE- UN  ION  OF    THEOLOGICAL   ALUMNI.  5/ 

German  became  thoroughly  aroused  and  disgusted, 
and,  lifting  up  both  hands,  he  exclaimed:  *' Mein 
Gott,  forgive  Christopher  Columbus  for  having 
discovered  America !  You  Americans  must  know 
dings  zactly!  " 

Do  I  claim  too  much  in  claiming  Dr.  Park  as 
an  Oberlin  man  so  far  as  he  is  clear  in  his  notions^ 
and  an  Andover  man  only  so  far  as  he  gets  con- 
fused ! 

The  third  element  contributing  to  the  wide 
influence  of  the  theology  of  this  seminary  is, 
that  it  has  always  been  profoundly  earnest  and 
working ;  and,  I  may  add,  zvorkable. 

Mere  theorizing  and  philosophizing  have  been 
unknown  to  this  theology.  It  has  phuosophized 
and  theologized  on  a  working  basis.  Hence,  this 
theology  has  been  a  thing  of  heart  and  life,  a  matter 
valued  in  so  far,  and  only  in  so  far  as  it  could  be 
translated  into  redeemed  souls  and  the  Kingdom  of 
God  advanced  in  the  earth.  In  its  inmost  nature 
't  kas  been  evangelizing  and  missionary.  Hence, 
it  has  been  a  theology  of  holy  living  and  of 
revivals. 

Such  elements  cannot  but  make  a  theology  influ- 
ential, and  their  dominance  in  the  theolog)^  of  this 
school  has  given  it  the  grasp  it  holds  to-day  upon 
our  American  churches  and  people,  and  upon 
theologians  and  evangelical  churches  of  the  Con- 
gregational order  over  the  sea. 

Possessing  such  elements,  the  theology  of  this 
seminary  is  not  likely  to  be  turned  away  from  the 
narrow  path,  or  to  lose  the  spirit  of  genuine  prog 


58  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

ress  which  has  so  eminently  characterized  it  in 
the  past. 

Daniel  Webster,  returning  from  the  General 
Court  of  Massachusetts,  of  which  he  was  a  mem- 
ber, was  called  upon,  according  to  the  custom  of 
the  times,  to  give  account,  in  a  public  meeting  of 
his  constituents,  of  his  legislative  votes.  During 
the  session  he  had  voted  for  a  "  Road  Bill "  which 
was  very  distasteful  to  his  constituents.  In  his 
speech  before  them  he  conveniently  avoided 
making  any  reference  to  the  unpopular  bill.  But 
as  he  was  about  closing  his  address,  some  one 
called  out:  ''What  about  that  Road  Bill?"  Mr. 
Webster  did  not  hear  the  question !  But  it  was 
repeated  all  around  the  house,  and  evasion  was 
impossible,  and  he  began:  ''Gentlemen,  I  am  in 
favor  of — I  am  in  favor  of  every — gentlemen,  I  am 
in  favor  of  every  — ."  Just  at  this  point  Harrison 
Gray  Otis,  who  was  on  the  platform  behind  Web- 
ster, seeing  his  embarrassment,  stepped  up  and 
whispered  in  his  ear — "say,  every  road  except  the 
road  to  perdition.''  Webster  resumed  in  loud 
tones :  "  Gentlemen,  I  was  about  to  say,  when  my 
friend  here  interrupted  me,  that  I  was  in  favor  of 
every  road,  except  the  road  to  perdition  !  " 

In  like  manner  the  Oberlin  Theological  Seminary 
is  in  favor  of  every  road  except  the  road  to  per- 
dition! 

Looking  over  the  history  of  this  seminary  dur- 
ing these  fifty  years,  it  may  not  be  presuming,  it 
will  be  eminently  fitting,  for  it  to  take  to-day  as  a 
motto — at  once  in  harmony  with  its  past  history 


RE-UNION  OF   THEOLOGICAL  ALUMNI.  59 

and  meeting  the  exigencies  of  the  present  times, 
and  as  a  reliable  anchor  for  the  future — the  words 
of  the  Lord  to  his  ancient  prophets :  "  Stand  ye 
in  the  ways,  and  see,  and  ask  for  the  old  paths, 
where  is  the  good  way,  and  walk  therein,  and  ye 
shall  find  rest  for  your  souls." 


"LANE    SEMINARY   REBELS." 

BY    REV.    H.    LYMAN,    '36, 

Cortland,  N.  Y. 

The  phrase,  "  Rebels  of  Lane  Seminary,"  is  his- 
toric. There  was  no  danger  in  the  days  of  its 
origination,  that  it  would  convey  a  calumny;  but 
the  phrase  survives  while  the  events  which  en- 
vironed and  explained  it  are  forgotten.  For  this 
reason  it  is  of  some  consequence  that  I  should  say 
that  it  applies  in  a  way  of  metaphorical  accomoda- 
tion only.  There  was  neither  rebellion  nor  the 
shadow  of  rebellion  in  the  event  to  whi.ch  it  points. 
For  proof,  if  proof  be  demanded,  I  certify  the  fact 
that  the  students  who  are  designated  as  rebels, 
severally  received  at  the  hands  of  the  faculty,  cer- 
tificates of  good  standing  as  they  went  out. 

Perhaps  it  is  expected — in  any  case  I  shall  be  al- 
lowed here  to  state  the  circumstances  which  to  the 
view  of  the  recusants  indicated  the  prudence  and 
demanded  the  step  they  took  in  severing  the  rela- 
tion by  which  they  had  been  held  to  Lane  Semi- 
nary. 

It  is  proper  that  in  the  outset  I  should  say  that 
the  painiul  and  exciting  events  attendant  upon  our 


''LANE    SEMINARY  REBELS.**  6 1 

exodus,  did  not  infract  the  reverence  and  love 
which  we  bore  to  the  reverend  men,  Beecher, 
Stowe  and  Morgan,  of  the  faculty.  We  were  at- 
tached to  these  teachers  by  bonds  that  have  yielded 
to  no  gentle  strain.  Internally,  there  never  was 
tension  or  friction  to  disturb  the  harmonious  work^ 
ing  of  the  institution.  This  is  probably  the  final 
rehearsal  of  events  which,  when  current,  were  so 
prominent  and  exciting. 

The  basal  mischief  was  slavery.  Slavery  opened 
a  crack  which  enlarged  to  a  chasm.  We  were  well 
advanced  towards  an  entry  to  our  professional 
work  as  teachers  in  Israel.  Indeed  we  had  for 
more  than  a  year  being  prophesying  by  indulgence 
of  kind  auditors  in  the  waste  places  about  Cincin- 
nati. At  least  six  of  our  class  were  heads  of  fam- 
ilies and  some  had  given  themselves  to  foreign 
missions. 

We  deemed  it  important  as  a  preliminary  to  our 
life  task,  that  we  should  make  ourselves  acquainted 
with  the  moral  wants  and  maladies  of  our  times. 
To  that  end  we  had  formed  missionary  committees 
and  set  in  motion  the  agencies  usual  in  theological 
seminaries.  No  domestic  question  of  the  era  bas- 
seted  out  with  such  prominence  as  slavery.  The 
American  Anti-Slavery  Society  had  just  been 
formed.  Lundy  and  Garrison,  like  bulls  rampant, 
were  fretting  the  Northern  welkin  with  their  roar. 
The  Southern  sea  was  agitated  as  though  the  four 
winds  of  heaven  were  surging  upon  it,  while  the 
'^  solid  South"  was  whittling  upon  the  ligaments  that 
held  Dixie  to  the  Union. 


62  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

Just  at  this  juncture  the  outgoing  of  our  ethical 
inquiries  brought  us  to  this  very  theme — slavery. 
I  suppose  there  was  a  general  consent  in  the  insti- 
tution that  slavery  was  somehow  wrong  and  to  be 
got  rid  ot.  There  was  not  a  readiness  to  pronounce 
it  a  sin.  Colonisation  was  the  favorite  expedient 
of  a  portion  and  immediate  emancipation  of  an- 
other portion  of  our  brotherhood.  It  was  agreed 
to  debate  the  matter,  and  so  two  questions  were 
formulated,  one  under  which  to  try  the  merits  of 
one,  and  another  relating  to  the  other  scheme. 
The  debate  was  long  and  earnest.  All  the  fire  of 
the  contest  entered  into  the  local  discussion,  but 
without  its  bitterness.  Knowledge  upon  the  sub- 
ject was  short  and  crude.  There  was,  however,  a 
signal  exception.  A  fellow-student,  Theodore  D. 
Weld,  had  studied  the  whole  subject  thoroughly, 
and  when  he  came  to  speak  he  held  the  floor  for 
eighteen  hours.  His  speech  was  a  thesaurus,  giv- 
ing the  origin,  history,  effects,  both  upon  the  des- 
pot and  the  victim,  of  slavery.  When  the  debate 
ended,  it  was  found  that  we  were  prepared  to  take 
decided  ground.  We  were  for  immediate  emanci- 
pation by  a  most  decisive  majority. 

Two  societies  were  immediately  formed.  The 
colonization  society  was  feeble  from  the  outset.  It 
had  a  brief  day,  but  it  neither  attempted  nor  ac- 
complished much. 

Ver}^  different  was  the  spirit  of  the  abolition 
society.  The  duration  of  the  two  societies  was 
precisely  equal.  The  abolitionists  entered  upon 
their  work  as  one  that  was  to  be  done  and  finished. 


''LANE   SEMINARY  REBELS:'  63 

while  the  sun  and  moon  endured,  while  the  colonic 
zationists  contemplated  a  deeper  eschatology. 

Good  fruits  of  abolition  began  to  appear.  A 
student  who  was  a  slave-holder,  and  who  had  come 
to  the  seminary  relying  upon  the  hire  of  his  slaves 
to  carry  him  through  his  theological  course,  went 
home  and  emancipated  his  slaves  and  put  himself 
to  expense  for  their  benefit. 

James  G.  Birney,  a  slaveholder  and  secretary  of 
the  Kentucky  Colonization  Society,  whose  con- 
science had  been  awakened,  appeared  at  the  semi- 
nary. The  enhghtened  students  took  him  in  and  ex- 
pounded unto  him  the  way  of  God  more  perfectly. 
Every  day  brought  its  advance. 

A  committee  to  find  the  address  of  men  of  in- 
fluence in  all  the  land,  went  to  work.  Another  com- 
mittee prepared  a  document  which,  without  pad  or 
buffer,  set  forth  the  doctrine  of  immediate  emanci- 
pation. This  was  printed  in  great  numbers.  A 
committee  of  the  whole  folded  and  diiiected  this 
document,  and  sent  it  abroad  to  all  the  winds. 
Then  came  cyclones  and  thunderings,  and  an 
earthquake.  Portents  appeared  and  voices  were 
heard.  Tokens  were  abroad  in  the  earth,  and 
waterspouts  in  the  heavens. 

About  this  time  came  vacation.  The  term  closed 
happily.  No  disapprobation  had  been  signified  by 
the  faculty,  no  token  of  discontent  among  the  stu- 
dents. But  the  faculty  having  dispersed,  the  trus- 
tees came  upon  the  stage.  Yes,  convened  in  Cin- 
cinnati, and  took  the  seminary  in  hand.  Then  fol- 
lowed acts  declarative  and  statutory,   which  en- 


64  OB  E  RUN  JUBILEE. 

tirely  changed  our  relation  to  the  institution.  We 
were  there  under  the  tacit  understanding  that  the 
rules  would  be  reasonable,  and  their  administration 
in  the  hands  of  fathers,  who  would  administer 
them  in  a  paternal  fashion.  We  knew  our  teachers, 
we  did  not  know  the  trustees,  even  when  we  met 
them. 

It  was  a  breach  of  good  faith  to  assume  the  gov- 
ernment over  us.  If  the  mayor,  aldermen  and 
common  council  of  the  city  had  extended  jurisdic- 
tion over  us,  I  do  not  see  that  more  marked  injus- 
tice would  have  raenaced  us.  New  laws  were  im- 
mediately enacted,  some  of  which  were  annoying, 
and  others  menacing.     I  will  give  samples: 

1.  That  societies,  relating  to  slavery,  that  have 
recently  been  formed  in  the  seminary,  are  abol- 
ished. 

2.  It  shall  not  be  lawful  for  the  students  to  have 
public  communication  with  one  another,  at  table  or 
elsewhere,  without  leave  of  the  faculty. 

Now  if  any  reason  had  existed  for  these  rules, 
we  should  have  submitted  to  them.  They  were 
annoying  and  inconvenient.  They  seemed  to  re- 
gard us  as  mischievous  boys,  who  needed  ad- 
ditional bringing  up.  We  were  held  to  the  semi- 
nary in  part  by  necessity,  much  more  by  affection. 

But  another  weight  was  added,  which  decided 
our  action  with  an  emphasis  that  precluded  delib- 
eration.    It  was  this : 

"  The  Executive  Committee  of  the  Trustees  shall 
have  pozvcr  to  dismiss  any  student,  when  they  shall 
think  it  necessary  so  to  do'' 


''LANE    SEMINARY  REBELS.'*  65 

In  the  letter  of  the  law,  we  saw  ruin  to  all  our 
hope  in  life;  in  the  commentary  which  immediately 
followed,  we  saw  the  confirmation  of  the  worst, 
for  no  sooner  had  this  enactment  been  made,  than 
action  under  its  provision  was  taken.  A  motion  to 
dismiss  William  T.  Allan  was  made  and  enter- 
tained, and  was  laid  over  to  a  subsequent  meeting. 
They  meant  business. 

Who  was  William  T.  Allan  ?  He  was  a  gentle- 
man, most  agreeable  to  his  peers  and  to  the  faculty, 
son  of  an  Alabama  slaveholder,  most  scrupulous 
in  the  observance  of  every  rule  of  the  seminary, 
with  no  spot  upon  him  ;  obnoxious  only  because 
he  had  been  made  president  of  our  anti-slavery 
society.  There  was  Allan,  asleep  in  his  dormitory 
two  miles  away,  while  proceedings  fatal  to  his 
character  and  to  all  his  aspirations,  were  proceed- 
ing in  the  office  of  a  pork-house  in  the  city,  and 
only  deferred  by  adjournment. 

None  can  deny  that  such  mode  of  proceeding  is 
exceedingly  convenient.  What  waste  of  patience 
it  would  have  saved  in  the  Guiteau  trial  and  in  the 
Star  Route  trials.  It  requires  no  summons  of  par- 
ties or  of  witnesses — not  even  acquaintance  with 
the  victim.  Do  the  executive  committee  of  the 
trustees  think  it  necessary  so  to  do?  All  turns  upon 
that  question. 

I  believe  we  find  among  the  moderns,  no  ex- 
ample of  juridical  proceedings  so  curt  and  facile. 
Yet  a  little  historic  knowledge  will  show  among 
the  more  ancient  courts  abundant  precedents. 

The  great  Herod — prudent  man — saw  dangers 


66  OBERLIN  JUBILEE, 

to  the  royal  succession.  He  thought  it  necessary 
so  to  do,  then  down  came  his  blow  upon  the  inno- 
cents. Torquemada  and  his  compeers  in  the  Holy 
Office  of  the  Inquisition,  thought  it  necessary  so 
to  do,  and  sent  men  and  women  to  torture  and  the 
flames.  The  Venetian  Council  of  Ten  ordered  un- 
seen victims  sent  to  the  galleys,  or  to  torture, 
*'  when  they  thought  it  necessary  so  to  do."  In  the 
days  of  the  Stuarts,  the  Lords  of  the  Star  Cham- 
ber did  anything  and  everything  *'  when  they 
thought  it  necessary  so  to  do."  The  Executive 
Committee  of  Lane,  affecting  more  these  ancient 
than  any  recent  precedents,  had  got  their  machine 
all  ready  and  bound  their  Isaac,  when  circum- 
stances intervened.  Just  as  the  blow  was  about 
being  delivered,  William.  T.  Allan,  and  those  like 
him  exposed  to  danger,  bolted  the  jurisdiction,  for 
they  thought  it  necessary  so  to  do. 

"  Down  came  the  blow,  but  in  the  heath 
The  erring  blade  found  bloodless  sheath," 

We  went  out,  not  knowing  whither  we  went. 
The  Lord's  hand  w^as  with  us.  Five  miles  from 
the  seminary  we  found  a  deserted  brick  tavern, 
with  many  convenient  rooms.  Here  we  rallied. 
A  gentleman  of  the  vicinity  offered  us  all  neces- 
sary fuel,  a  gentleman  far  off,  sent  us  a  thousand 
dollars,  and  we  set  up  a  seminary  of  our  own  and 
became  a  law  unto  ourselves.  George  Whipple 
was  competent  in  Hebrew,  and  William  T.  Allan 
in  Greek.  They  were  made  professors  in  the  inter- 
mediate state.     It  was  desirable  that  we  should 


''LANE    SEMINARY  REBELS."  6/ 

remain  near  to  Cincinnati  for  a  season^  as  we  were 
there  teaching-  in  evening-  schools  for  the  colored 
people  of  that  city. 

Gentlemen  of  the  jury,  our  plea  here  closes. 
You  will  have  the  case  in  your  hands  and  will  ren- 
der a  true  verdict  upon  this  question.  Ought  we 
(conventionally  named  Rebels  of  Lane  Seminary) 
to  have  re-entered  under  the  amended  code? 

If  your  interest  in  the  fortunes  of  these  "  rebels" 
requires,  it  is  due  to  you  to  relate  briefly  what  be- 
fel  them  until  they  reached  this  refug^e. 

The  American  Anti-Slavery  Society  proffered  to 
a  dozen  of  us  commissions  and  employment  in  its 
service.  We  accepted  their  proposal.  On  our 
way  to  our  lecturing  field,  we  stopped  at  Putnam 
and  assisted  in  the  formation  of  the  Ohio  Anti- 
Slavery  Society. 

Our  outfit  was  scanty,  and  with  a  view  to  its  re- 
plenishment, we  moved  our  classmate  Weld  to 
open  his  ample  stores,  as  common  property,  to  the 
band.  To  this  he  generously  assented,  and  we 
gathered  at  Cleveland,  where,  by  the  grace  of 
Judge  Sterling,  his  law  office  was  made  free  to  us 
for  the  purpose,  and  there  was  opened  a  school  of 
abolition,  where,  copying  documents,  with  hints, 
discussions  and  suggestions,  we  spent  two  weeks 
in  earnest  and  most  profitable  drill. 

A  chemical  question  arose,  which  related  to  tar 
and  feathers  and  how  to  erase  their  stain.     This 
practical  question  was  disposed  of  in  a  single  les- 
son.    The  names  of  those  avaihng  themselves  of  j 
this  course  were :  T.  D.  Weld,  S.  W.  Streeter,  Ed    I 


68  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

ward  Weld,  H.  B.  Stanton,  H.  Lyman,  James  A. 
Thome,  J.  W.  Alvord,  M.  R.  Robinson,  George 
Whipple  and  W.  T.  Allan. 

A  few  months  of  exciting  and  dispiriting  ex- 
perience followed,  we  became  familiar  with  harsh 
words  and  the  more  solid  missives, — stale  eggs, 
brick-bats  and  tar. 

But  in  our  despondency  this  was  our  cheer:  Cal- 
houn, Wise  and  Toombs,  in  Congress,  Avould  ad- 
vance the  monstrous  assumptions  of  slavery,  and 
then  the  devotees  of  the  North,  like  Buchanan, 
Cass,  Hendricks,  and  Atherton,  would  bow  down 
and  worship. 

We  were  humbled,  feeling  ourselves  to  be  mere 
symptoms  in  the  great  fight ;  but  we  were  com- 
forted, and  could  laugh  until  sleep  came  on. 

Our  next  step  brought  us  to  Oberlin,  where  a 
kind  hospitality  awaited  us,  which  no  words  can 
depict. 

Pending  our  exit  from  Lane  we  were  admon- 
ished by  good  men,  who  prophesied  that  our  regret 
would  follow  hard  upon  our  action. 

Six  trees  of  natural  growth  have  escaped  the 
axe  and  the  fire,  and  stand  upon  this  site  to  repre- 
sent the  ancient  forest  of  Oberlin.  1  make  them 
typical  of  the  six  old  men  who  remember  both  Lane 
and  Oberlin,  and  have  come  up  here  to  participate 
in  this  jubilee.  The  winds  of  fifty  winters  have 
blown  upon  us,  and  the  sedative  of  half  a  cen- 
tury since  the  events  of  my  narrative  were  cur- 
rent has  ministered  its  influence.  The  ardor  of 
youth  has  departed  and  the  western  verge  of  life 


'' LANE   SEMINARY  REBELS."  69 

looms  in  the  near  distance.  Oblivion  waits  before 
our  gate. 

Those  who  took  the  step,  long  ago,  adhere  to  the 
decision  then  made. 

For  myself,  I  cannot  see  how  we  could  have 
done  differently  in  consistency  with  public  duty 
or  self-respect.  How  could  1  have  lifted  my  face 
here  to-day,  in  the  presence  of  juniors,  who  met 
the  same  issue  and  maintained  a  sterner  debate 
upon  the  historic  fields  of  Winchester,  Cross  Lanes, 
Fort  Republic,  Ringgold  and  Cedar  Mountain, 
not  to  say  Cleveland  ? 

Then  behold  here  what  extravagances  select 
men,  under  the  influence  of  a  popular  craze,  will 
enact,  and  what  a  straddle  charity  has  to  make  to 
adjust  herself  to  the  apothegm,  *'  Charity  never 
faileth." 


EARLY   DAYS. 

BY    REV.    LEONARD    S.    PARKER,    '38, 
Berkley,  Mass. 

Allow  me  an  opening  word  of  explanation — I 
bring  no  manuscript.  When  I  came  to  Oberlin  in 
tlie  spring  of  1835,  I  had  an  essay  in  my  right 
hand  and  a  very  timid  spirit  in  my  breast.  I  was 
here  taught  to  stand  firmly  on  my  feet,  to  have 
something  to  say,  and  to  say  it.  I  thought  I  should 
best  honor  my  Alma  Mater  by  carrying  out  that 
precept  here  and  now.  In  the  brief  time  lean 
properly  take,  I  wish  specially  to  emphasize  three 
points  in  my  experience  here  during  the  four  first 
years  of  the  Department  of  Theology.  The  first 
regards  physical  matters.  Two  weeks  were  spent 
in  the  journey  from  my  New  England  home — I 
came  this  week  in  twenty-four  hours.  I  found 
Cleveland  a  small  place.  Coming  from  thence  to 
Elyria  occupied  a  hard  day,  riding  in  a  primi- 
tive stage  over  a  corduroy  road  and  walking 
through  the  deep  mud-gulches,  to  the  no  small 
harm  of  my  Eastern  boots.  From  Elyria  to  Ober- 
lin a  lumber  wagon  came  once  a  week.  Leaving 
mry  trunk  to  be  brought  out  the  next  trip,  I  started 
for  Oberlin.  The  tracks  were  many  and  devious. 
I  lost  my  way,  and  not  till  late  in  the  day  did  I 
reach  this  village.  I  well  remember  my  united 
dinner  and  tea — a  glass  of  lukewarm  water,  a  few 


EARLY  DAYS.  7 1 

slices  of  stale  bread,  and  a  slice  of  fried  salt  pork 
in  lieu  of  butter. 

I  was  early  put  in  a  central  room  in  Slab  Hall, 
supported  on  the  right  and  left  by  my  stalwart 
classmates  from  Lane  Seminary.  I  have  a  very 
feeling  remembrance  of  arising  in  the  middle  of 
stormy  nights  to  move  my  bed  to  some  spot  out  of 
the  reach  of  the  dripping  rain.  This  tough  usage 
at  length  brought  on  a  brain  attack,  when  my 
honored  brother-in-law,  Professor  Dascomb,  took 
me  to  his  room,  gave  me  the  only  bed  he  had, 
while  he  and  his  wife  slept  upon  the  floor.  But 
we  made  as  little  as  possible  of  these  ''  light  afflic- 
tions," as  Paul  would  call  them — I  merely  give 
them  in  passing  as  a  part  of  our  history. 

The  second  point  I  would  make  touches  the  in- 
tellectual life  we  found  here.  It  was  of  the  rarest, 
most  stimulating  kind.  There  was  abundant  ozone 
in  the  mental  atmosphere.  I  had  known  thorough 
drill  in  study  in  the  Boston  Latin  School,  and  in 
Dartmouth  College ;  but  I  here  found  forces  in 
action  that  aroused  and  set  ablaze  all  the  powers 
of  my  mind.  Our  teachers  were  in  their  prime, 
and  thoroughly  enthusiastic  in  their  chosen  work. 
Having  a  four  years'  course  in  theology  before 
me,  I  took  the  liberty  to  review  in  part  my  col- 
lege studies.  I  cannot  forget  the  teachers  or  the 
subjects  taught  at  that  time.  Under  Professor 
Dascomb,  I  went  over  several  of  the  natural 
sciences  ;  under  Professor  J.  P.  Cowles,  I  studied 
Butler  and  Isaiah ;  under  Professor  John  Morgan 
— that  peerless  expositor  of  Scripture,  and  model 


7^  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

reader  of  hymns — I  learned  New  Testament  exe- 
gesis ;  under  President  Mahan,  I  studied  mental 
and  moral  philosophy,  and  heard  lessons  never  to 
be  forgotten  touching  "fundamental  principles.'' 
From  Charles  G.  Finney — with  a  Pauline  character 
of  iron  logic  and  exceeding  unction — I  caught 
the  grand  truths  of  theology — the  queen  of  the 
sciences.  He  must  have  been  as  good  as  dead 
who  could  live  at  such  a  time,  in  such  a  place, 
without  the  highest  intellectual  profit. 

But,  to  come  to  the  third  point  of  interest,  on 
which  I  wish  to  dwell  for  a  moment;  the  gem,  the 
crown,  the  glory  of  those  earthly  days,  was  the 
spiritual  influence  here  exerted  and  felt.  What  a 
multitude  of  men  and  women  were  here  of  one 
heart  and  of  one  mind  ?  What  paternal  feel- 
ing; what  meetings  for  prayer;  what  high  days 
were  the  Sabbaths ;  and  what  revivals,  what 
searchings  among  the  very  best  of  men  and  wo- 
men !  1  had  come  from  the  three  days'  meetings 
of  New  England,  where  sometimes  gray-haired 
ministers  were  almost  afraid  to  speak  to  the  people, 
lest  they  should  mar  the  work  of  God.  But  I  had 
never  seen  before,  I  have  never  seen  smce,  such 
mighty  displays  of  the  piercing  power  of  the  truth 
and  Spirit  of  God  as  we  then  witnessed  and  felt. 
One  or  two  illustrations  must  suffice:  We  were 
listening  to  lectures  on  the  atonement  from  our 
revered  teacher  in  theology.  As  he  led  us  into 
the  depths  of  the  grand  theme,  his  whole  being 
was  so  filled  and  fired  by  a  sense  of  the  exceeding 
greatness  of  the  love  of  God   therein  displayed, 


EARL  V  DA  YS.  73 

that,  our  pencils  and 'note-books  forgotten,  with 
wrapt  attention  and  streaming  eyes  we  drank  in 
the  gracious  words  that  flowed  from  his  lips.  On 
another  occasion  a  scene  occurred  that  made  a 
living  and  abiding  impression  on  the  hearts  of  all 
present.  The  class  in  theology  of  '38  was  about 
to  leave  the  Institution.  We  met  to  hear  one  of 
the  last  lectures  of  the  course.  Our  teacher,  as 
usual,  knelt  with  us  in  offering  the  opening  prayer, 
but  the  burden  on  his  soul  for  us,  for  Zion,  for  a 
lost  world,  could  not  be  thrown  off  in  a  few 
common  petitions.  He  stood  in  the  gap  and 
wrestled  for  the  blessing.  For  a  whole  hour  he 
led  us  up  to  God.  We  then  arose  and  went  in 
profound  silence  to  our  rooms.  There  was  no  lec- 
ture that  day.  We  have  forgotten  a  hundred  ser- 
mons and  addresses — but  that  prayer,  never  can  we 
forget  it !  Here  is  the  biding  of  Oberlin's  power. 
But  did  it  all  pay  ?  you  are  ready  to  ask.  I  put 
that  question  to  myself  when,  on  yesterday,  I 
looked  upon  the  resting-place  of  the  mortal  part 
of  Charles  G.  Finney,  and  stood  between  the 
graves  of  my  brother-in-law  and  sister,  Professor 
and  Mrs.  Dascomb.  The  choice  of  Oberlin  had 
cost  me  something.  To  do  good  and  earn  some 
needed  money,  one  winter  I  acted  as  agent  for 
the  New  York  Anti-Slavery  Society.  The  field 
assigned  myself  and  a  beloved  classmate,  Hiram 
Foote,  was  Trumbull  County,  Ohio.  We  began 
our  work  in  the  town  of  Mesopotamia.  Horrid 
music,  brickbats  and  rotten  eggs  assailed  us. 
Thence  we  went  forth  single-handed,  each  taking 


74  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

a  tier  of  towns.  We  gave  *at  the  right  time  leave 
to  ask  questions  and  bring  objections.  From 
elders  and  deacons,  and  doctors  and  lawyers — yea, 
all  classes  of  persons,  they  were  hurled  at  us.  One 
Sunday,  in  the  town  of  Johnson,  the  climax  of  oppo- 
sition was  capped.  I  had  spoken  during  the  day  on 
ordinafy  Christian  topics ;  in  the  evening  I  was  to 
discuss  the  Bible  view  of  slavery.  In  the  midst  of 
the  lecture  a  large  stone,  aimed  at  my  head,  struck 
me  between  the  shoulders,  and  thus  saved  my  life. 
I  carry  those  apostolic  marks  to-day.  Early  in  my 
ministry  I  received  a  call  to  a  city  in  my  native 
East.  I  asked  a  father  in  the  sacred  office  if  he 
would  preach  the  installation  sermon.  "•  Yes," 
said  he,  "  if  you  bear  the  scorching  examination^ 
and  the  council  vote  to  settle  you."  The  decision 
to  install  me  was  reached  with  difficulty.  Not 
spoken  but  hidden  heresy  was  feared.  For  months 
no  one  wished  to  exchange  with  the  spotted  young 
man.  And  when  Mr.  Finney  aided  me  in  a  glorious 
revival  there,  not  a  brother  in  the  ministry  stood 
by  me.  Yet,  at  the  close  of  well  nigh  fifty  years 
of  work  in  the  ministry,  I  say,  with  all  the  empha- 
sis of  experience,  it  paid  to  study  theology  at  Oberlin. 
I  could  not  thank  my  sainted  sister,  whose  sweet, 
strong  influence  drew  me  hither,  but  I  could  and 
did  send  up  to  her  in  heaven  a  brother's  deep, 
warm  thanksgiving  ;  and  had  I  a  son  or  a  grand- 
son to  give  to  the  ministry  of  the  gospel,  I  woul'd 
use  my  whole  influence  to  have  him  prepare  for 
that  supreme  service  at  Oberlin  above  all  places 
in  the  country  and  the  world ! 


THE  BEGINNING. 

BY    REV.   JOHN   M.   WILLIAMS,  *42, 
Chicago,  111. 

I  CAME  to  Oberlin  September,  1833,  three  months 
before  the  first  class  met  there  for  its  first  recitation. 
I  found  but  two  on  the  ground  who  came  as 
students — J.  J.  Warren  and  William  Hoysington. 
The  former  has  crossed  the  river,  so  you  see  before 
you,  with  a  single  exception,  the  oldest  student  of 
Oberlin. 

I  was  graduated  from  this  college,  with  seven- 
teen other  young  men — half  of  whom  have  passed 
away — in  1839,  forty-four  years  ago,  and  from  the 
Theological  Department,  after  a  residence  here  of 
nine  years,  in  1842,  forty -one  years  ago. 

I  say  this  with  hesitation,  lest  some  one  in  this 
great  assembly  should  be  so  illogical  as  to  infer 
that  I  am  an  old  man.  This  would  be  a  non 
sequitur  and  a  great  mistake.  I  am  not  old  ;  I  am 
young ;  more  than  a  thousand  years  younger  than 
St.  Paul,  and  he,  you  know,  was  born  out  of  due 
time.  I  cannot  perceive  in  myself  any  particular 
indications  of  decay  as  yet.  I  am,  so  far  as  ap- 
pears, capable  of  just  as  big  blunders  as  forty-one 
years  ago. 


76  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

But  an  half-century,  I  admit,  is  a  long  time. 
The  child  born  the  day  I  reached  this  place,  is 
down  in  the  afternoon  of  life  now,  and  the  snows 
are  probably  beginning  to  gather  on  his  temples ; 
but  with  me  it  has  passed  like  some  rapid  but  not 
unpleasant  dream.  A  song  from  some  unseen 
singer  has  been  singing  in  my  ear  all  the  way,  and 
its  notes,  I  think,  have  been  growing  richer,  and  its 
diapason  broader,  as  the  years  have  passed,  and  I 
think  it  will  never  cease  singing.  Would  I  live  my 
live  over  again  1  I  hesitate  to  say  yes,  chiefly 
from  fear  that  a  second  trial  would  prove  a  greater 
failure  than  the  first. 

During  these  forty-one  years,  I  have  been  a  very 
infrequent  visitor  of  Oberlin,  not  because  I  have 
lost  my  interest  in  this  school.  I  have  ever  lelt 
the  deepest  interest  in  it.  I  have  rejoiced  in  its 
prosperity,  and  been  proud  of  its  triumphs.  I 
have  dreamed  about  it  more  frequently  than  about 
any  other  one  thing.  You  would  think  me  exag- 
gerating were  I  to  tell  you  how  often,  in  the  mys- 
teries of  sleep,  I  have  been  back  here,  treadmg 
these  halls,  recitation  rooms,  and  mingling  with 
the  dear  fellows  whom  I  had  learned  to  love  long 
ago,  and  how  uniformly  I  have  seemed  to  myself 
to  be  delinquent  in  every  duty,  and  unworthy  a 
place  among  3^ou. 

I  have  read  everything  I  have  seen  in  the 
papers  about  this  school  and  its  officers.  I  have 
kept  myself  pretty  well  informed,  and  maintained  a 
kind  of  fatherly  watch  over  it.  I  have  read,  too, 
very  much  of  the  literature  which  has  emanated 


THE  BEGINNING.  77 

from  this  centre  of  thought.  And  here  I  wish  to 
thank  President  Fairchild,  whom  I  see  before  me, 
for  his  edition  of  "  Finney's  Theology."  I  had  re- 
garded Finney's  style  as  lacking  in  scholarly 
finish  ;  but  this  work,  as  it  now  appears,  though 
I  understand  every  word  in  it  is  from  the  pen  of 
the  author  himself,  strikes  me  as  a  model  of  our 
English  tongue.  There  is  nothing  in  our  language 
more  clear,  terse,  and  classical.  I  regard  it  as  the 
great  theological  work  of  the  centur3\  The  man 
who  has  mastered  it  is  a  theological  scholar.  It 
is  moulding  the  science  of  theology,  and  is  destined 
to  a  greater  and  greater  influence  on  the  thinking 
of  the  world. 

The  younger  portion  of  my  hearers  can  hardly 
conceive  of  the  prejudice  against  this  school  at  the 
time  I  left.  It  had  many  friends,  but  in  the  estima- 
tion of  the  great  public,  an  Abolitionist,  a  ''  nigger,'- 
and  an  Oberlin  man  belonged  to  the  same  category. 
Its  students  were  accounted  heretics  by  the  Ameri- 
can Home  Missionary  Society,  the  A.  B.  C,  and  the 
American  Education  Society,  and  many  of  the 
pulpits  were  closed  against  them.  "  I  would  go," 
said  a  clergyman  (now  a  very  w^arm  friend  of 
this  school),  "  fifty  miles  and  back  to  shut  the 
doors  of  one  of  our  churches  against  an  Oberlin 
man."  Rev.  Dr.  Lion,  of  Erie,  Pa.,  said,  in  my  hear- 
ing,  before  the  Synod  of  Western  Pennsylvania: 
''  I  have  not  had  a  conversion  in  my  church 
in  three  years,  but  I  have  kept  Oberlinism  out 
of  it."  Yet,  though  my  lot  was  cast  in  the  dense 
prejudice  of  Hyper-Calvinistic  Presbyterianism — 


78  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

I  say  it  not  boastingl}- — I  have  never  shrunk, 
on  any  suitable  occasion,  from  confessing  myself 
an  Oberlin  man,  in  full  sympathy  with  Oberlin 
theology  and  reform.  I  do  not  know  that  I  have 
ever  suffered  to  any  extent  from  this  prejudice.  I 
have  always  had  so  much  to  do,  I  have  not  had 
time  to  even  feel  bad ;  but  I  have  felt,  when  1  have 
heard  Oberlin  traduced,  very  much  as  young 
Oliver  Twist  did  when  the  big  boy  told  him  his 
mother  was  a  bad  woman.  Indeed  Oberlin,  during 
my  bo3diood  and  early  manhood,  was  my  mother — 
the  only  one  I  had  on  earth — and  I  have  loved  her 
as  such,  and  loved  her  other  children,  too,  and  the 
latchstring  has  always  been  on  the  outside  when 
one  of  them  chanced  to  come  along. 

Fifty  years  ago  I  came  from  my  home,  under 
the  shadow  of  the  Green  Mountains,  eight  hundred 
miles  away,  to  this  consecrated  spot,  hidden  there 
in  the  centre  of  an  almost  interminable  forest. 

I  was  first  introduced  into  the  family  of  Deacon 
Pease — a  good  man,  whose  countenance  seemed  a 
benediction — living  in  a  small  log-house,  on  the 
Southwest  corner  of  what  is  now  the  College 
Square.  I  remember  retiring  at  night  in  the  loft  of 
that  shanty — fourteen  of  us  in  one  bed.  The  next 
day  was  Sunday,  and  I  remember  attending  public 
worship — about  fifty  present — in  the  same  shanty. 
Father  Shipherd,  as  we  then  called  the  founder  of 
this  school,  preached  a  good  sermon,  I  presume ; 
but  my  attention  was  occupied  taking  the  dimen- 
sions of  the  only  other  lad  of  my  age  present — 
William  Hoysington — and  debating  the  important 


THE  BEGINNING.  79 

question,  whether  I  could  lick  him,  or  he  me.  As 
athletic  contests  were  not  then  apart  of  the  college 
curriculum,  that  question  has  never  been  settled, 
and  we  are  both  getting-  so  far  down  the  declivity 
of  life,  I  apprehend  it  will  have  to  take  its  place 
among  the  unsolved  problems  of  this  world,  and 
perhaps,  of  the  next,  too. 

The  next  day  I  commenced  boarding  in  the 
family  of  Father  Shipherd,  and  working  on  Attic 
Hall,  the  only  framed  building  in  the  place,  at  five 
cents  an  hour.  How  well  I  remember  my  hostess, 
Mother  Shipherd— with  her  pale,  patient,  loving 
face,  and  I  have  a  very  vivid  recollection  of  her 
excellent  apple  dumplings,  too.  That  patient,  self- 
sacrificing  woman  was  the  right  hand  of  her  hus- 
band in  this  great  work,  and  is  deserving  of  equal 
renown.  We  need  a  day  of  judgment  to  reveal 
what  the  early  mothers  of  OberUn  did  for  this 
school.     God  bless  them  ! 

How  well  I  remember  that  heroic  band  who 
spent  the  winter  of  1833-4,  ^^  the  seven-by-nine 
rooms  of  Attic  Hall.  I  have  often  heard  President 
Fairchild  claim  to  be  one  of  the  early  students  of 
Oberlin.  I  wish  to  correct  any  such  impression. 
He  never  attained  unto  this  honor.  Oberlin  was 
born  and  baptized,  the  morning  stars  had  sung 
together,  and  the  sons  of  God  had  shouted  for  joy. 
It  had  been  on  its  course,  like  a  ship  launched  on 
the  sea,  for  weeks  and  months  before  he  ever  saw 
Oberlin,  or  Oberlin  him.  Why,  we  were  old  set- 
tlers when  he  came.  I  say  this  in  the  interest  of 
truth,  not  to  injure  the  reputation  of  one  who  is  so 


80  OB E RUN  JUBILEE. 

much  a  stranger  here  as  our  honored  President.  I 
do  not  charge  him,  you  will  observe,  with  inten- 
tional misrepresentation.  It  is  an  error  of  the  head, 
not  of  the  heart.  I  remember  among  that  company 
Gerrish,  and  Adams,  and  Knight — known  then  by 
the  more  classic  name  of  Nox — the  irrepressible 
Mayo  G.  Smith,  Middleton  Reed,  Miles  St.  John, 
and  others,  some  of  whom  are  alive  and  remain, 
others  have  fallen  asleep.  Dear  fellows  :  we  shall 
meet  again,  I  trust,  where  death  hath  no  sting. 

And  the  girls,  too,  occupying  another  part  of  the 
building,  I  remember  well.  There  was  one  whose 
name  I  can  hardly  trust  myself  to  speak — Mary 
Wilhams — so  gentle,  loving — -one  who  gave  in- 
dubitable evidence  at  three  years  of  age  of  loving 
Christ — one  who  prayed  with  me  and  besought  me 
to  give  my  heart  to  Christ  when  we  were  little  chil- 
dren— one  v>^ho  was  never  heard  to  speak  an  angry 
or  harsh  word  in  her  life.  Another  beautiful  girl, 
Mary  Ann  Adams,  who  occupied  for  years  so 
responsible  a  place  in  this  school.  Both  are  gone. 
*■'  Nor  sink  such  stars  in  empty  night."  And  there 
was  another  dear  one ;  I  will  call  her  "  Melva,"  for 
over  that  name,  she  has,  with  her  pen,  probably 
done  more  to  sweeten  and  purify  our  homes  than 
any  other  lady  who  has  gone  out  from  Oberlin. 
God  bless  her!  I  wonder  if  Oberlin  has  any  such 
girls  now.  Many  others  I  could  mention  whom  1 
hope  to  meet  when  the  day  of  life  is  fled. 

How  well  I  remember  Oberlin's  first  grave,  dug 
for  my  room-mate — St.  John.  No  one  knew  what 
that  patient  man  suffered  during  that  memorable 


l^HE  BEGINNING,  8 1 

winter.  But  Oberlin  had  kind  hearts  then,  as  now, 
and  tenderly  was  the  stranger  cared  for. 

I  also  remember  well  the  **  colonists"  as  we  called 
the  first  settlers.  I  think  I  knew  them  all — Deacons 
Pease,  and  Turner,  and  Hosford,  Pelton,  Hopkins, 
the  IngersoUs  and  Penfields,  Crosby  and  James, 
and  others — sturdy,  consecrated  men  of  New  Eng- 
land stock. 

These  remarks  may  seem  trivial.  They  cer- 
tainly would  be,  had  the  events  to  which  I  have 
referred  occurred  yesterday.  But  distance  lends 
enchantment  to  the  view.  Seen  through  the  vista 
of  fifty  years,  they  are  not  trivial.  Events  magnify 
as  we  recede  from  them.  These  trifling  things, 
the  idle  word  of  to-day,  will  by-and-by  loom  up  in 
amazing  significance. 

Fifty  years;  but  what  years!  How  eventful! 
Fifty  years  ago  there  were  fourteen  millions  of 
people  in  our  country.  Now  there  are  four  times 
that  number.  Fifty  years  ago  there  was  one  short 
railroad  connecting  Troy  and  Schenectady ;  now 
there  are  one  hundred  thousand  miles,  costing  five 
thousand  million  dollars.  Fifty  years  ago  Oberlin 
was  on  the  distant  Western  frontier.  Chicago 
was  a  far-off,  almost  unheard-of  military  post 
among  the  Indians,  and  the  Mississippi  was  the 
outmost  boundary  known  to  civilization  on  the 
West — the  ite  plus  tcltra.  What  a  change!  What 
cities  and  empires  have  risen  since  !  Fifty  years 
ago  there  were  two  and  a  half  miUion  slaves 
crouching  beneath  the  lash  of  their  tyrant  masters, 
with  almost  no  friend  but  God.     Now  thev   are 


82  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

transformed  into  four  million  men  and  women,  free 
as  their  mountain  streams. 

But  one  of  the  mightiest  achievements  of  the 
half  century,  is  the  planting  and  rearing  up  this 
colossal  school.  The  work  already  accomplished, 
no  arithmetic  can  compute.  It  was  the  first  to 
open  the  higher  fields  of  learning  to  woman,  and 
make  her  the  peer  of  her  brother  in  college  halls. 
Now,  where  is  the  school  which  has  not  followed, 
or  is  not  about  to  follow,  her  example? 

Fifty  years  ago  the  admission  ol  a  colored  stu- 
dent would  have  broken  up  almost  any  school  in 
the  land.  Oberlin  believed  ^'a  man  was  a  man  for 
a'  that,"  and  opened  her  doors  to  men  and  women 
of  every  race  and  complexion,  bringing  upon  her- 
self a  storm  of  hisses  and  curses.  But  God  was 
well  pleased,  and  afforded  the  world  a  new  illus- 
tration of  the  fact:  ''them  that  honor  me  I  will 
honor." 

The  accession  from  Lane  Seminary  made 
Oberlin  the  hot-bed  of  Abolitionism.  From  this 
fountain  streams  of  anti-slavery  influence  began  at 
once  to  flow.  Pamphlets,  papers,  letters,  lecturers 
and  preachers,  and  school  teachers,  some  five  hun- 
dred each  winter,  went  forth  everywhere  preach- 
ing the  anti-slavery  w^ord.  It  was  the  influence 
emanating  from  this  school  that  saved  our  country 
in  its  great  hour  of  peril.  There  were  thousands 
of  other  co-operating  influences,  but  had  that  which 
went  out  from  Oberlin  been  subtracted,  there  can 
hardly  remain  a  doubt  that  freedom  would  have 
foundered  in  the  storm.     Indeed    it   is  doubtful 


THE    BEGINNING.  83 

whether  there  would  have  been  any  storm. 
The  nation  probably  would  have  meekly  yielded 
to  the  dominion  of  the  slave  power,  and  the 
Western  'Hemisphere  would  have  become  a  den 
of  tyrants  and  slaves.  As  it  was,  we  were  scarce- 
ly saved. 

A  work  of  immeasurable  value,  too,  has  been 
wrought  in  the  field  of  theology.  For  forty  years 
this  ground  was  hallowed  by  the  presence  of  the 
great  preacher  and  thinker  of  the  century.  The 
system  he  wrought  out  and  embodied  in  his  great 
work,  will  be  the  theology  of  the  Millennium,  for  it 
is  the  theology  of  reason,  and  o'l  the  Word  of  God. 

What  I  want  to  say,  as  T  was  asked  to  talk  about 
'■''  the  beginning,"  is,  all  this  was  here  in  the  beginning. 
All  there  is  and  has  been  hert  is  the  legitimate 
fruitage  of  seed  sown  in  the  early  infancy  of  this 
colony  and  school.  All  here  has  come  of  evolu- 
tion and  development.  In  the  principles  brought 
here  by  Shipherd  and  Stewart  and  Deacon  Pease 
were  the  promise  and  potency  of  every  quality  and 
form  of  life  that  has  grown  upon  this  soil.  This 
is  holy  ground  on  which  we  tread.  Every  inch  of 
its  soil  and  particle  of  dust  are.  hallowed  by 
tears  and  prayer.  The  conduct  of  this  school,  at 
its  inception,  was  committed  to  God,  and  accepted 
by  Him  ;  hence  its  success  and  greatness.  The 
highest  possibilities  to  a  school  or  a  man  are 
reached  under  the  Divine  directing.  May  this 
school  continue  in  the  future,  as  in  the  past,  to 
follow  the  pillar  of  cloud  and  fire,  and  may  the 
hand    which  shall  write  its  history  for    the  next 


84  OBERLIN  [UBILEE. 

great  jubilee  trace  it  in  brighter  lines,  and  tell  of 
more  wonderful  achievements. 


Addresses  were  also  made  by  Pres.  N.  J.  Mor- 
rison, '57,  Springfield,  Mo.,  on  ''  The  Middle  Pe- 
riod;" and  by  Rev.  C.  C.  Creegan,  '"j^,  Syracuse, 
N.  Y.,  on  ''  The  Later  Period." 


BACCALAUREATE   SERMON: 

PROVIDENTIAL    ASPECTS    OF    THE 
OBERLIN    ENTERPRISE. 

BY  PRES.  J.  H.  FAIRCHILD. 
Auditorium,  Sunday,  July  ist,  10:30  A.M. 

In  all  our  planning  and  building  two  forces  are 
at  work,  the  human  and  the  divine.  We  put  our 
own  strength  and  wisdom  into  every  enterprise  ; 
but,  whether  in  success  or  failure,  we  are  often 
brought  to  face  the  fact  that  a  broader  plan  em- 
braces ours,  and  that  a  mightier  hand  is  shaping 
the  movement  and  determining  the  result.  No 
house  is  ever  built  without  a  human  plan  and  pur- 
pose and  hand  in  the  work ;  but  it  is  equally  true 
that  the  house  will  never  rise  without  the  co-opera- 
tion of  God's  purpose  and  power.  We  find  our- 
selves in  the  world,  surrounded  with  abundant 
material  for  building,  supplied  by  God's  own  hand, 
with  every  motive  and  encouragement  to  the  work. 
We  may  arise  and  build  if  we  will,  and  the  "  Father 
of  Spirits  "  will  further  every  honest  endeavor.  If 
we  neglect  the  opportunity,  that  Father  will  never 
stretch  the  roof  over  us,  however  much  He  may 
pity  our  folly  or  our  wretchedness.  The  law  of 
all  successful  endeavor  in  our  human  life  is  faith- 
ful work  on  our  part,  and  an  overruling  wisdom 


86  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

and  goodness  to  shape  our  ends.  The  simplest  of 
our  undertakings  involve  too  many  contingencies 
and  liabilities  and  consequences  to  afford  any 
hope  of  success  without  this  divine  ordering.  "  A 
man's  heart  deviseth  his  way,  but  the  Lord  di- 
recteth  his  steps."  Obedient  and  trustful  souls 
have  always  found  strength  and  refreshment  in 
looking  back  over  the  path  by  which  they  have 
been  led,  to  mark  the  tokens  of  his  heavenly  guid- 
ance ;  and  the  devout  student  of  history  sees  the 
same  divine  ordering  in  the  more  complex  move- 
ments of  the  world,  involving  the  conscious  and 
unconscious  co-operation  of  many  hearts  and  hands. 

It  is  becoming  to  us,  our  duty  and  our  privilege, 
on  this  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  planting  of  Ober- 
lin,  to  look  back  over  the  years,  and  mark  the  most 
obvious  indications  of  God's  overruling  hand,  guid- 
ing and  shaping  the  work  according  to  his  own 
wisdom.  Our  poor  efforts  to  interpret  the  ways 
of  God  often  seem  Hke  presumption  ;  but  to  neglect 
to  recognise  His  helping  hand  and  note  his  deliver- 
ances is  stupidity  and  ingratitude.  Our  limited 
interpretations  of  His  ways  must  always  be  inade- 
quate. The  providential  movement  which  resulted 
in  blessing  to  us  may  have  a  thousand  other  benefi- 
cent bearings  beyond  our  range  of  vision ;  but 
why  should  we  fail  to  discern  that  "  portion  of  His 
ways  "  which  falls  within  our  observation  ?  What, 
then,  are  the  indications  of  a  divine  hand  in  the 
history  of  Oberlin  ? 

First,  the  impulse  to  undertake  the  work  was 
divinely  given.     This  was  the  unquestioning  con- 


BACCALAUREATE   SERMON.  8/ 

viction  of  the  men  who  began  it,  a  conviction 
which  followed  them  to  the  end.  They  waited  on 
God  in  earnest  and  persistent  prayer  for  an  indica- 
tion of  His  will,  and  received  their  commission, 
and  from  that  day  on  they  were  enabled  to  say, 
"  The  God  of  heaven  He  will  prosper  us,  therefore 
we,  His  servants,  will  arise  and  build."  They  did 
not  undertake  the  work  in  a  careful  calculation 
of  all  encourag-ements  and  difficulties — a  wise 
balancing  of  reasons  for  and  against.  They  sought 
divine  guidance,  and  in  assurance  of  this  they 
found  the  solution  of  all  the  difficuHies  that  could 
be  urged  against  them.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
maintain  that  the  Lord  always  guides  his  servants 
by  an  inward  conviction,  having  the  force  of  a 
revelation  to  the  soul.  The  ordinary  and  normal 
method  of  divine  illumination  is  doubtless  through 
the  understanding,  involving  a  conscious  and  clear 
apprehension  of  the  reasons  upon  which  the  de- 
cision turns.  But  there  are  times  when  the  reasons 
in  favor  of  a  given  course,  though  actually  exist- 
ing and  known  to  God,  lie  absolutely  beyond  the 
reach  of  men,  and  the  inward  impulse  impressed 
by  the  divine  Spirit  must  take  the  place  of  all 
other  reasons.  The  project  of  founding  a  colony 
and  large  school  in  the  forests  of  Northern  Ohio 
fifty  years  ago,  could  not  commend  itself  to  ordi- 
nary human  judgment.  To  one  guided  simply  by 
his  own  judgment  the  scheme  would  have  see»med 
to  the  last  degree  chimerical.  Mr.  Shipherd  and 
Mr.  Stewart  had  their  reasons,  reasons  which 
seemed  to  satisfy  themselves  for  the  course  which 


88  OBERLIN  JUBILEE, 

they  were  about  to  pursue.  But  these  reasons 
alone  could  never  have  given  the  settled  and  un- 
daunted purpose  which  animated  them,  so  that  for 
months  they  could  stand  alone  and  speak  confi- 
dently of  their  enterprise,  without  the  approval  of 
a  solitary  human  being  out  of  their  own  home 
circle. 

When  Mr.  Shipherd  started  from  Elyria  on 
horseback,  with  three  dollars  in  his  pocket  and  the 
burden  of  a  great  work  upon  his  heart,  confidently 
expecting  colonists  and  students  and  teachers  to 
join  him  in  his  enterprise,  and  bring  a  community 
and  a  college  into  existence  in  the  forest,  in  the 
space  of  a  few  months,  it  was  not  merely  his  own 
judgment  and  reason  that  sustained  him.  He  be- 
lieved that  the  Lord  had  given  him  a  charge,  and 
that  he  was  to  go  on  his  way  doubting  nothing. 

It  is  easy  to  say  that  Mr.  Shipherd  must  have 
been  a  visionary  man,  and  that  a  dream  of  his  own 
possessed  him  ;  but  this  will  not  explain  the  power 
he  had  with  others,  the  ability  to  impress  them 
with  his  own  confidence  and  enthusiasm,  so  that 
sober  and  substantial  men  enlisted  in  the  cause, 
supplying  him  with  money,  and  granting  land  for 
the  school,  while  colonists  and  students  came  on 
before  him,  cleared  the  land,  erected  their  houses 
and  put  up  the  first  college  building  ready  for  the 
opening  of  the  school  at  the  appointed  time.  It 
can  scarcely  be  questioned  that  Mr.  Shipherd  was 
m  a  sense  a  visionary  man,  but  the  vision  which 
came  to  him  of  this  Oberlin  work  was  like  the 
visions  which  God  gives  to  his  prophets.     It  sent 


BACCALAUREATE   SERMON.  89 

him  out  with  a  prophet's  zeal  and  power,  and  gave 
him  no  rest  until  his  mission  was  accomplished.  It 
might  even  be  admitted  that  a  man  of  more  sober 
and  steady  judgment,  and  more  considerate  sense 
of  the  difficulties  of  the  undertaking,  could  scarcely 
have  accepted  and  entered  upon  the  task.  It  was 
with  difficulty  that  the  Lord  could  persuade 
Moses,  after  he  was  four-score  years  of  age,  and 
had  had  forty  years  for  reflection,  that  he  was  the 
man  to  stand  before  Pharaoh,  and  to  lead  the 
people  out  of  the  bondage  of  Egypt.  Forty  years 
earlier  he  would  have  accepted  the  charge  with 
far  less  hesitation.  The  man  who  was  to  lay  the 
foundations  at  Oberlin  must  be  one  whom  diffi- 
culties could  not  appal,  one  even  who  could  not 
properly  apprehend  and  measure  difficulties,  whose 
breadth  of  view  was  not  sufficient  to  take  in  at  once 
all  the  elements  of  the  problem  before  him.  Mr. 
Shipherd  was  fruitful  in  devisings,  and  these  plans 
met  his  own  requirements,  and  served  as  a  basis 
for  his  work  ;  but,  examined  in  the  cool  light  of 
experience,  they  must  have  appeared  inadequate. 
His  first  estimate  of  the  money  required  as  an 
outfit  in  the  work,  aside  from  what  colonists  and 
students  would  bring,  was  two  thousand  dollars. 
The  buildings  and  apparatus  and  farm  and  shops 
were  to  be  provided  by  the  payment  of  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  dollars  for  each  student  at  the  out- 
set, thus  securing  a  place  and  opportunity  for  one 
student  for  all  future  time.  Then  the  charge  of 
fifteen  dollars  a  year  to  each  pupil  for  tuition,  a 
charge  which  he  was  to  meet  by  his  own  labor,  in 


90  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

addition  to  all  his  other  expenses,  would  provide 
the  salaries  of  all  necessary  instructors.  It  was  a 
simple  and  beautiful  scheme,  but  it  would  not  bear 
a  moment's  thorough  examination.  That  was  Mr. 
Shipherd's  plan  and  not  the  Lord's,  and  as  the 
work  moved  on  it  disappeared  from  view.  In  all 
probability  Gideon,  called  of  God  to  deliver  Israel 
from  their  enemies,  when  he  had  gathered  his  army 
had  some  well  considered  plan  of  the  campaign 
upon  which  he  was  about  to  enter,  but  the  various 
siftings  by  which  his  force  was  reduced  to  three  hun- 
dred men  must  have  greatly  deranged  his  plans. 
Mr.  Shipherd  had  the  assurance  that  his  commis- 
sion and  marching  orders  were  from  the  Lord,  and 
this  explains  his  confidence  and  his  power.  His 
plan,  upon  its  own  merits,  could  not  have  secured 
the  co-operation  of  the  men  whom  he  gathered, 
but  the  intense  conviction  which  was  in  his  soul, 
the  utter  devotion  of  his  life  to  the  work,  wrought 
mightily  with  others,  and  drew  them  into  the 
enterprise.  The  Divine  guidance  which  he  sought 
and  received  was  his  wisdom  and  his  power.  He 
was  a  servant  of  God,  called  and  anointed  to  this 
special  work. 

Again,  in  its  general  and  essential  features,  the 
plan  of  the  enterprise  as  a  Christian  comrminity  and 
college,  exhibits  an  adjustment  and  provision  of 
forces  far  beyond  the  wisdom  and  foresight  of  the 
men  to  whom  it  was  vouchsafed,  and  who  received 
it  as  divinely  given,  "the  pattern  shown  them  in 
the  mount."  They  had  their  explanation  of  the  ar- 
rangement, and  their  reasons  for  it,  of  more  or  less 


BACCALAUREATE   SERMON.  9 1 

significance — reasons  satisfactory  to  themselves 
and  to  many  others.  But  the  great  fact  that  Ober- 
lin  was  to  receive  and  entertain  and  give  effect  to 
certain  ideas  and  principles  which  would  not  be 
welcomed  in  any  average  community  was  wholly 
unknown  to  them.  The  Oberlin  colony  was  made 
up  of  selected  Christian  families,  pledged  in  a  spe- 
cial covenant  to  lives  of  consecration  to  the  service 
of  God  and  mankind,  especially  to  aggressive  Chris- 
tian work,  to  spread  the  gospel  through  the  New 
West  of  our  own  land,  and  all  abroad.  They  came 
as  they  would  have  gone  to  any  missionary  work. 
Yet  even  this  elect  community  received  with  great 
hesitation  and  reluctance  the  proposal  to  open  the 
door  to  colored  students,  and  to  take  a  position  of 
aggressive  opposition  to  slavery.  If  the  college 
had  been  planted  in  any  settled  community,  with 
established  ideas  and  social  influence,  in  no  way 
committed  to  a  careful  consideration  of  every 
question  and  predisposed  to  respond  to  every  call 
of  duty  however  forbidding,  the  proposal  would 
have  been  rejected,  and  there  would  have  been  no 
Oberlin,  whatever  else  might  have  occurred.  The 
beautiful  site  on  ''  the  Point,"  at  Elyria,  was  offered 
to  Mr.  Shipherd  by  Mr.  Ely.  A  fine  school  might 
have  been  established  there  with  beautiful  sur- 
roundings,  but  it  would  not  have  been  Oberlin, 
and  could  not  have  done  the  work  to  which  Ober- 
lin had  been  called.  The  ideas  which  were  to  be 
wrought  out  here  could  not  have  been  accepted 
there.  Social  influences  were  already  organized 
there,   as   in   every   established   community,   and 


92  OBERLIN  JUBILEE, 

years  would  have  been  required  to  secure  the 
results  which  were  here  accomplished  in  a  few 
days.  Vast  consequences  to  Oberlin  and  to  all  its 
work  turned  upon  that  action,  providentially 
secured  by  the  union  of  the  college  and  colony  ; 
but  all  this  was  hidden  from  human  eyes.  Mr. 
Shipherd's  reasons  for  the  colony  had  more  or  less 
of  force,  and  have  been  in  a  degree  realized  ;  but 
the  reasons  which  he  did  not  apprehend  probably 
outweighed  all  the  rest. 

The  essential  plari  of  the  college  with  its  various 
departments,  preparatory,  collegiate,  and  theologi- 
cal, with  a  female  department,  as  it  was  called,  in 
somewhat  indeterminate  relations  to  the  whole, 
was  a  remarkable  conception  of  its  founders.  This 
was  the  germ  that  was  planted,  and  out  of  this  the 
college  in  its  complex  constitution  has  grown. 
This  general  plan  was  essential  to  Oberlin :  with- 
out it  its  work  must  have  been  far  different  and 
far  less  extended  and  influential.  The  opening  of 
the  higher  education  to  women  was  in  that  germ, 
by  no  means  fully  comprehended  by  the  founders, 
but  ready  to  develop  and  take  the  form  which  the 
forces  within  and  without  should  determine.  This 
one  feature  of  the  plan  must  be  introduced  at  the 
outset.  To  introduce  it  after  the  school  had 
attained  form  and  character,  would  have  been  dif- 
ficult if  not  impossible.  That  an  institution  can 
now  introduce  such  a  change,  is  the  result  of  many 
years  of  trial  of  the  system.  Such  a  forecasting 
of  the  needs  of  the  situation,  so  that  the  entire  plan 
as   presented   in   the   first    circulars   is   almost  a 


BACCALAUREATE   SERMON.  93 

description  of  the  college  as  it  stands  to-day,  indi. 
cates  a  Divine  ordering. 

The  manual  labor  feature  of  the  plan,  so  promi- 
nent in  the  beginning,  and  apparently  so  essential, 
in  the  judgment  of  the  founders  indispensable, 
soon  lost  its  prominence,  and  gradually  disappeared 
as  a  distinctive  characteristic  of  the  school.  At 
first  view  this  would  seem  an  imperfection  in  the 
original  plan,  a  sign  of  human  weakness  instead  of 
Divine  wisdom ;  and  such  it  doubtless  was,  so  far 
as  it  was  a  human  plan.  But  that  one  feature 
made  Oberlin  possible.  Scarcely  a  score  of  the 
first  five  hundred  students  that  came  to  Oberlin 
could  have  come  but  for  the  encouragement  of  the 
manual  labor  system,  and  but  for  this  they  could 
not  have  remained  a  term.  It  was  the  prospect  of 
self-support  that  brought  students  from  the  east 
and  west,  from  the  north  and  south,  and  it  was  the 
possibility  of  self-support  that  enabled  them  to 
hold  on  their  way  and  give  the  school  at  once  a 
commanding  position  among  the  schools  of  the 
land.  The  promise  and  supply  of  labor  on  the 
part  of  the  college  soon  failed,  but  the  students  had 
learned  to  make  their  way  by  teaching  in  the  long 
vacation,  and  by  opportunities  for  work  found  in 
the  new  settlement.  In  form  the  manual  labor 
system  was  to  a  great  extent  a  failure,  but  in  sub- 
stance it  was  a  great  success,  essential  to  the  very 
existence  of  the  college.  It  was  necessary  that  the 
founders  should  heartily  believe  in  the  system  and 
set  it  forth  with  enthusiastic  confidence,  as  men 
of  wider  experience  and  clearer  insight  could  not 


94  /         OBERLIN  JUBILEE, 

have  done  ;  and  it  is  the  Lord's  prerogative  to 
overrule  such  misapprehensions  to  the  furtherance 
of  his  own  purpose — a  paradox  which  often 
appears  in  human  affairs.  No  one  who  passed 
through  the  experiment  at  Oberhn  would  dare  to 
recommend  a  similar  experiment  in  the  founding 
of  a  new  school.  Yet  that  experiment  was  just  as 
essential  to  the  existence  of  Oberlin  as  that  Mr. 
Finney  should  have  been  sent  here.  Indeed,  Mr. 
Finney  could  have  had  no  place  or  work  here 
unless  the  manual  labor  scheme  had  preceded  him. 
The  human  plan  and  purpose  was  overruled  by  the 
Divine,  and  God's  wisdom  w^rought  through  man's 
want  of  wisdom. 

The  location  of  Oberlin  has  been  a  matter  of  criti- 
cism throughout  the  fifty  years,  and  only  recently, 
as  the  place  has  grown  to  exhibit  a  beauty  of  its 
own,  have  men  ceased  to  wonder  that  the  founders 
could  have  planted  a  college  and  a  town  upon  a 
site  originally  so  inaccessible  and  forbidding.  In 
the  broader  view  it  is  not  difficult  to  see  that 
Oberhn  was  placed  where  it  should  have  been. 
Within  the  parallels  which  bound  the  New  Eng- 
land emigration,  in  the  gateway  of  the  growing 
West,  with  the  vast  valley  of  the  Mississippi  in  full 
view,  was  manifestly  the  point  where  the  forces 
which  were  to  be  concentrated  at  Oberlin  could 
best  be  marshalled  to  the  conflict.  In  those  wider 
aspects  of  the  situation  there  could  have  been  no 
better  place.  As  to  the  exact  locality,  the  result 
must  be  accepted  as  a  vindication.  The  desirable 
thing  was  to  secure  a  community  around  the  col- 


BACCALAUREATE   SERMON.  95 

lege  in  general  sympathy  with  its  educational 
work,  and  with  little  attraction  for  other  interests 
which  might  bring  undesirable  influences.  If  the 
site  had  been  more  inviting,  the  sudden  and  rapid 
growth  which  took  place  would  have  attracted 
men  with  an  eye  to  business,  and  an  era  of  land 
speculation  might  have  afflicted  the  college  and 
the  town.  Other  institutions  and  communities 
have  suffered  such  calamities.  If  the  place  had 
been  attractive  to  manufacturers,  and  large  estab- 
lishments had  sprung  up  with  many  workmen,  the 
tone  of  society  would  have  been  changed,  and 
saloons  and  similar  nuisances  would  have  multiplied 
upon  us.  The  educational  work  would  have  been 
greatly  marred.  To  a  great  extent  the  world  has 
yielded  the  Oberlin  tract  to  the  uses  for  which  it 
was  selected  and  consecrated,  and  for  this  we  have 
reason  to  be  grateful.  The  intractable  soil  and 
the  impassable  roads  have  had  something  to  do  in 
securing  these  privileges.  They  brought  hardship  • 
and  expense  to  the  early  colonists,  and  the  end  of 
these  has  not  yet  fully  come ;  but  there  is  a  moral 
discipline  in  outward  conditions  which  must  not 
be  overlooked.  It  was  a  rugged  hospitality  with 
which  the  bleak  New  England  coast  received  the 
Plymouth  colony  two  centuries  and  a  half  ago. 
Georgia  would  have  welcomed  it  with  genial  skies 
and  a  verdant  landscape ;  but  New  England  was 
the  place  providentially  appointed  for  the  Ply- 
mouth colony,  and  the  place  for  the  Oberlin 
colony  was  indicated  by  similar  providences. 
There  was   little   of   human  wisdom  involved  in 


96  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

either  selection,  but  Divine  wisdom  is  justified  in 
the  outcome. 

Thus  Oberlin  was  planted  ;  and  at  the  close  of 
two  years  after  Mr.  Shipherd  left  Elyria,  the  colony 
had  grown  to  a  little  village,  and  the  school 
embraced  a  hundred  pupils,  with  the  necessary 
teachers,  and  all  was  moving  forward  with  energy 
and  hopefulness.  There  were  no  visible  means  of 
sustaining  the  enterprise.  The  money  that  had 
been  raised  had  all  been  expended  in  clearing  the 
lands  and  the  erection  of  buildings.  The  lands 
originally  purchased  had  been  disposed  of,  and  no 
money  could  come  from  that  source.  But  there 
were  a  hundred  students  to  be  fed  and  instructed, 
and  many  of  them  clothed,  in  return  for  their 
daily  manual  labor  of  four  hours  each,  labor  which 
must  go  into  buildings  and  improvements,  without 
any  return  in  means  of  support ;  and  to  all  human 
foresight  this  must  be  the  condition  for  years.  As 
men  estimate  prospects  and  probabilities,  the 
career  of  Oberlin  must  be  brief,  and  her  students 
and  teachers  would  be  scattered  as  rapidly  as  they 
had  been  gathered.  All  seemed  to  hang  upon 
Mr.  Shipherd,  and  he  was  undaunted,  and  his 
courage  was  contagious.  Oberlin  was  to  rise, 
and  the  gates  of  hell  should  not  prevail  against  it. 

Then  came  the  unexpected  enlargement  and  reen- 
forcement  for  which  Oberlin  had  been  obviously 
planned  and  previously  arranged  ;  but  which  no 
human  imagination  had  ever  dreamed  of.  The 
students  of  Lane  Seminary,  forbidden  to  discuss 
slavery  and  other  questions  of  interest,  had  with- 


BACCALAUREATE    SERMON.  9/ 

drawn,  and  were  planning  variously  for  arrange- 
ments to  complete  their  studies.  Mr.  Tappan,  of 
New  York,  had  opened  a  correspondence  with 
them,  with  reference  to  the  establishment  of  a 
school  of  theology  under  anti-slavery  auspices. 
Mr.  Finney  had  accomplished  his  ten  years'  cam- 
paign of  evangelistic  labor,  and  was  taking  a  rest 
as  pastor  of  the  church  in  Chatham  Street  Theatre, 
waiting  for  the  building  of  the  Broadway  Taber- 
nacle. As  the  result  of  his  labors  in  the  city  other 
churches  were  springing  up  and  calling  for  pas- 
tors. Our  Professor  Barrows  took  charge  of  one 
of  these ;  but  there  was  a  great  want  of  pastors 
for  these  churches,  in  sympathy  with  the  great 
revival  movement,  and  trained  in  its  theology  and 
aggressive  spirit.  The  Tappans,  and  other  men 
in  New  York,  who  rallied  to  Mr.  Finney's  support, 
were  urging  him  to  organize  a  theological  class 
and  receive  young  men  for  this  purpose.  Indeed 
one  of  the  rooms  in  the  Broadway  Tabernacle 
had  been  set  apart  as  a  theological  lecture  room. 
Here  then  were  three  independent  movements 
which  were  now  to  be  combined  into  one — the 
school  at  Oberhn  already  established  with  the 
capacity  and  impulse  of  growth  and  expansion; 
a  class  of  vigorous  young  men  at  Cincinnati 
imbued  with  anti-slavery  principles,  and  burning 
wdth  anti-slavery  zeal,  looking  more  toward  Mr. 
Mahan  as  a  leader  than  to  any  other  man;  and  the 
hew  religious  movement  in  New  York,  which 
was  at  the  same  time  an  anti-slavery  movement 
with  an  impulse   in   the  direction  of  theological 


gB  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

education.  Of  this  movement  Mr.  Finney  was 
the  natural  leader,  with  a  strong  support  of  enter- 
prising and  prosperous  3^oung  business  men  of  the 
city,  with  ample  resources  and  earnest  purpose. 
These  movements  were  each  independent  of  the 
others  so  far  as  any  human  devising  was  concerned. 
The  men  engaged  in  one  knew  little  or  nothing  of 
the  others,  yet  each  of  them  needed  the  others 
as  its  natural  and  necessary  complement.  Each 
of  these  would  have  failed  essentially  or  come  to 
naught  without  the  reinforcement  of  the  others. 
So  far  as  human  intervention  was  concerned,  Mr. 
Shipherd's  energy  and  faith  were  the  forces  through 
which  the  combination  was  effected,  and  he  Avent 
forth  to  the  work  not  knowing  whither  or  why 
he  went. 

Means  must  be  found  to  sustain  the  work  at 
Oberlin.  This  was  the  burden  on  his  soul.  He 
knew  of  no  such  means  except  in  the  East,  and 
toward  the  East  his  face  was  turned.  But  the  in- 
ward light  that  guided  him  led  him  to  the  East 
by  Columbus  and  Cincinnati — a  road  that  he  had 
never  travelled.  He  knew  not  a  soul  in  either 
of  those  cities,  and  he  followed  the  leading 
simply  because  he  believed  it  was  from  God.  At 
Cincinnati  the  Divine  plan  opened  to  him.  He 
found  the  Lane  Seminary  students  and  President 
Mahan,  and  learned  of  the  proposition  of  Mr. 
Tappan,  of  New  York.  That  clew  he  followed 
up,  and  went  to  New  York  with  Mr.  Mahan  as  his 
associate.  Here  he  enlisted  Mr.  Finney  and  the 
Tappans,  with  their  associates  in  the  work,  and 


BACCALAUREATE   SERMON.  99 

returned,  after  an  absence  of  a  few  weeks,  to 
Oberlin  with  Mr.  Mahan  appointed  and  pledged 
to  come  as  President  of  the  College,  Mr.  Finney 
as  Professor  of  Theology,  and  Professor  Morgan  for 
New  Testament  Literature  and  Exegesis.  As  a 
financial  basis  for  their  work,  the  Tappans  and  other 
merchants  of  New  York  had  organized  a  professor- 
ship association  pledged  to  pay  the  annual  interest 
of  eight  professorships,  with  the  expressed  inten- 
tion of  paying,  at  length,  the  principal.  Thus  the 
forces,  moral,  personal  and  financial,  essential  to  the 
establishment  of  the  work  here,  were  at  once  con- 
centrated, and  thus  the  great  ideas  and  movements 
which  Oberlin  was  to  represent  and  sustain  were 
brought  into  connection  with  it.  Obedin  would 
have  been  nothing  without  these  ideas  and  forces, 
and  the  ideas  needed  such  a  centre  of  development 
and  propagation.  But  how  utterly  above  and 
almost  independent  of  human  devising  was  the 
plan  by  which  these  things  were  accomplished. 
Human  agency  wrought  vigorously  in  each  of 
these  separate  lines  of  action,  but  the  Lord  who 
builds  the  house  prepared  and  gathered  these 
materials  from  diverse  sources,  according  to  His 
own  over-ruling  wisdom.  There  is  a  philosophy 
of  the  world  which  would  call  this  a  mere  fortu- 
nate coincidence,  as  it  proposes  to  account  for  the 
orderly  and  adjusted  universe  by  making  it  the 
result  of  blind  unconscious  forces,  acting  upon 
each  other  Avithout  any  over-ruling  thought  or 
purpose.  Reason  and  faith  alike  reject  the  prop- 
osition, in  the   one  case  as  i»n  the  other.      "  The 


100  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

Lord's  throne  is  in  the  heavens,  and  His  kingdom 
ruleth  over  all." 

Superficial  observers,  through  all  the  early 
years,  imagined  that  the  growth  of  Oberlin  was 
due  to  some  special  wisdom  in  its  organization  and 
management ;  and  it  has  been  no  uncommon  thing 
for  owners  of  a  few  sections  of  prairie  at  the  West 
to  come  to  Oberlin  with  the  semi-philanthropic 
proposition  to  give  a  section  of  their  land,  for  the 
establishment  of  a  school  like  Oberlin,  provided 
some  one  here  who  knew  the  secret  would  go  and 
take  charge  of  the  enterprise. 

Time  would  fail  me  to  follow  out  the  indications 
of  a  Divine  supervision  in  the  subsequent  history 
and  growth  of  Oberlin.  A  few  of  the  more 
obvious  and  public  facts  must  suffice.  Some  of 
these  occurrences  and  facts  seemed  forbidding  and 
most  unfortunate  at  the  time,  but  in  the  end  they 
were  seen  to  yield  the  peaceable  fruits  of  righteous- 
ness. The  financial  failure  at  New  York  was  one 
of  the  earliest  and  most  startling  of  these  experi- 
ences. The  great  enlargement  of  1835,  including 
both  professors  and  students,  with  the  forces  and 
ideas  which  they  embodied,  was  secured  by  the 
guaranty  of  funds  to  sustain  the  work.  Without 
this  prospective  provision  the  men  could  not  have 
come  who  were  essential  to  the  work.  President 
Finney,  in  his  autobiography,  distinctly  states  that, 
apprehending  the  want  of  funds  to  put  up  build- 
ings and  provide  the  things  required,  he  had,  be- 
fore deciding  to  come,  privately  laid  the  case 
before  Arthur  Tappan,  and  received  his  personal 


BACCALAUREATE   SERMON,  iOl 

assurance  that  his  own  income,  then  a  hundred 
thousand  a  year,  should  be  devoted  to  the  work  as 
far  as  needed.  This  was  entirely  distinct  from  the 
professorship  fund,  which  had  been  openly  and 
formally  pledged.  With  these  promises  of  sup- 
port the  great  accession  of  1835  was  secured. 
The  men  came,  two  college  buildings  were 
erected,  and  dwellings  for  President  Mahan  and 
Professor  Finney ;  but  before  a  year  had  passed 
by,  a  commercial  revulsion  swept  over  the  lane), 
and  the  whole  prospect  of  support  from  New 
York  utterly  disappeared.  The  professors,  the 
students,  the  community  and  some  buildings  were 
here,  but  without  any  visible  means  of  support. 
The  hearts  of  the  instructors  had  become  in- 
terested in  the  work.  It  was  manifestly  the  work 
to  which  God  had  called  them.  They  could  not 
desert  it.  It  had  grown  upon  their  hands  beyond 
their  most  sanguine  expectations.  The  question 
of  material  support  became  entirely  subordinate. 
They  came  to  see  that  ''  Man  shall  not  live  by 
bread  alone,  but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth 
out  of  the  mouth  of  God."  The  struggle  for  life 
upon  which  they  entered,  and  which  has  continued 
through  the  fifty  years,  was  not  so  much  to  find 
the  means  of  living,  as  to  get  the  means  of  doing 
well  their  work,  and  using  wisely  that  which  they 
obtained. 

The  failure  of  the  financial  basis  seemed  calami- 
tous, almost  fatal.  Viewed  from  the  standpoint  of 
to-day,  it  is  not  difficult  to  believe  that  it  was  one 
of  the  essential  conditions  of  the  success  of  Oberlin, 


1 02  QBE  RUN  J  UBILEE, 

and  that  while  the  provision  made  at  New  York  was 
wise,  as  a  human  provision,  and  necessary,  it  had 
served  its  purpose  when  the  men  had  been  gath- 
ered, and  was  then  set  aside  as  no  longer  required 
in  the  Divine  plan. 

It  has  often  appeared  that  the  way  to  build  a 
college  that  shall  be  a  blessing  to  the  community 
and  the  world,  is  not  to  launch  it  with  an  abundant 
supply  of  means, — that  it  is  almost  as  unprofitable 
for  a  college  to  begin  in  this  way  as  for  a  young 
man,  without  experience  or  character,  to  enter 
upon  life  with  a  fortune  upon  his  shoulders  provid- 
ed by  his  father.  A  successful  college  is  a  growth. 
It  must  find  and  make  its  work,  and  form  its 
character, under  the  pressure  of  its  natural  environ- 
ment. An  easy  supply  of  all  fancied  wants,  rather 
than  its  real  wants,  will  very  likely  mar  its  growth. 
This  would  seem  to  be  true  as  a  general  fact.  It 
was  especially  true  in  the  case  of  Oberlin.  It  must 
be  remembered  that  Oberlin  had  its  place  and 
work  in  the  new  country.  The  Valley  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi was  its  fore-ordained  field.  Its  students 
were  to  be  drawn  largely  from  these  new  regions, 
and  were  to  return  to  the  new  settlements  for  their 
life-work.  They  must  be  self-supporting  students 
if  they  were  to  be  students  at  all,  and  they  must 
find  at  Oberlin,  if  they  were  to  come  here,  a  place 
where  they  could  feel  at  home  during  their  years 
of  study.  As  it  was,  they  found  a  school  supplied 
with  competent  and  earnest  and  inspiring  teachers, 
and  all  essential  appliances  for  their  work.  They 
found  these  instructors,  and  the  entire  communitv, 


BACCALAUREATE    SERMON.  I03 

in  the  same  struggle  with  themselves  for  d.aily 
bread.  A  bond  of  sympath}^  and  fellow-feeling 
was  established  by  the  necessity  of  the  case,  the 
result  of  common  conditions  and  a  common  life, 
rather  than  of  a  definite  and  conscious  attempt  to 
look  after  this  self-supporting  student,  and  lend 
him  a  helping  hand.  The  young  man  who  saw  his 
president  or  professor  go  to  the  woods,  for  the 
afternoon,  with  his  axe  upon  his  shoulder,  and 
knew  that  it  was  not  simply  to  obtain  needed  exer- 
cise, but  to  meet  an  absolute  want  of  his  own 
household,  would  need  no  assurance  of  sympathy 
in  his  struggles  to  obtain  an  education.  A  revela- 
tion from  heaven  could  not  have  increased  his  con- 
fidence. At  the  same  time  he  could  not  be  edu- 
cated away  from  sympathy  with  the  people,  with 
whom  he  was  to  live  and  labor.  Thus  Oberlin 
students,  as  they  went  forth,  were  ready  for  hard 
work  and  hard  places,  not  simply  because  they  had 
the  missionary  spirit,  and  were  ready  for  all  re- 
quired sacrifice,  but  because  in  natural  conditions 
and  general  sympathy  they  belonged  to  the  people 
with  whom  they  had  cast  their  lot.  Their  educa- 
tion had  fitted  them  to  help  those  that  needed  help, 
and  had  raised  no  partition  wall  to  cut  them  off 
from  their  sympathies. 

It  is  of  little  use  to  speculate  upon  the  probable 
consequences  if  the  promised  abundance  has  been 
realized.  The  professors  would  have  been  gener- 
ously sustained,  and  would  have  built  houses  in 
advance  of  the  general  condition  of  the  community. 
The  college   buildings  and  grounds  would  have 


I04  O BERLIN  JUBILEE. 

taken  on  forms  of  comeliness  and  beauty  such  as 
the  taste  of  the  men  who  provided  the  means  sug- 
gested, and  Oberlin  would  have  stood  a  result  of 
Eastern  taste  in  the  new  country,  inviting  the  poor 
people  to  come  in  and  enjoy  the  privileges  so 
generously  bestowed  ;  and  they  would  not  have 
come.  It  could  not  be  the  place  or  the  home  for 
them. 

Another  misfortune  which  befell  Oberlin  in  the 
early  years,  and  which  needs  to  be  viewed  from 
its  providential  side,  was  the  almost  universal 
opposition  and  antagonism,  not  unmingled  with  con- 
tempt, which  it  encountered.  The  repugnance  to 
Oberlin  was  complex  and  varied,  social,  political, 
ecclesiastical,  theological  and  educational,  uniting 
the  good  and  the  bad,  the  intelligent  and  the 
ignorant  in  a  common  reprobation.  They  all 
seemed  to  themselves  to  have  abundant  reason  for 
their  dislike,  while  to  those  enlisted  in  the  work  it 
all  seemed  an  unfounded  prejudice  vi^hich  had  its 
natural  occasions,  but  no  sufficient  reason.  Those 
engaged  in  the  enterprise,  teachers,  students  and 
colonists,  understood  each  other  and  enjoyed  each 
other's  confidence.  The  seclusion  of  the  forests  in 
a  measure  sheltered  them  from  the  manifestation 
of  general  dislike,  and  they  were  too  busy  with 
their  own  work  to  be  greatly  disturbed.  But  at 
the  best  it  was  uncomfortable,  and  in  special  cases 
depressing,  and  we  may  congratulate  ourselves  to- 
day that  there  is  not  enough  of  it  remaining  to  mar 
our  jubilee. 

In  reviewing  those  years  of  reproach,   it  is  a 


B^ICCALAUREATE    SERMON.  lO^ 

satisfaction  to  recall  the  fact  that  no  essential  harm 
came  from  it  all.  The  number  of  students  steadily 
increased  until  it  equalled  that  of  any  school  in  the 
land.  A  student  often  encountered  opposition  in 
coming,  but  he  came  with  a  more  earnest  purpose 
and  invited  his  friends  to  join  him.  Some  that  were 
faint-hearted  were  doubtless  restrained,  but  the 
confidence  and  courage  of  those  that  came  was  our 
strength.  Again,  when  those  students  were  ready 
to  go  out,  there  was  work  for  them,  not  often 
prominent  positions,  but  always  posts  of  usefulness 
which,  faithfully  occupied,  grew  at  length  into 
places  of  honor.  They  were  received  as  teachers 
and  preachers  in  country  places,  not  often  in  the 
larger  towns,  and  it  is  doubtful  whether  their  in- 
fluence was  lessened  or  their  work  hindered. 

The  ideas  and  principles  which  it  was  the  mis- 
sion of  Oberlin  to  disseminate,  attracted  even  more 
attention  because  of  the  opposition,  and  secured  a 
wider  currency.  An  Oberlin  speaker,  on  any  plat- 
form, was  heard  with  curiosity  at  least,  because  he 
was  supposed  to  have  some  new  or  strange  thing 
to  say.  The  Oberlin  Evangelist^  which  under  other 
circumstances  could  not  have  existed,  obtained  a 
circulation  of  five  thousand  copies,  and  for  more 
than  twenty  years,  spread  far  and  wide  Oberlin 
principles  and  doctrines.  In  every  neighborhood 
there  were  a  few  that  saw  that  the  prevailing 
sentiment  was  unjust  and  slanderous,  and  their 
convictions  became  as  intense  and  pronounced  as 
those  of  the  opposition.  Thus  throughout  the 
land,  friends  of    Oberlin  sprang  up,  and  through 


I06  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

all  the  years  of  obloquy  they  stood  its  support  and 
strength.  It  was  not  merely  their  genuine  and 
hearty  sympathy  with  the  principles  of  Oberlin 
that  rallied  them  to  its  support.  They  felt  called 
upon  to  sustain  and  defend  an  enterprise  which 
was  so  maligned.  They  took  it  on  their  hearts 
until  it  became  a  part  of  their  life,  and  they 
brought  up  their  children  to  follow  in  their  foot- 
steps. No  institution  ever  had  more  devoted 
friends,  and  their  fidelity  was  in  part  due  to  the 
hostility  against  which  it  was  a  protest. 

A  similar  result  was  experienced  at  home.  The 
pressure  from  without,  of  opposition  and  scorn, 
cemented  and  consolidated  the  bonds  at  home  ; 
and  those  who  stood  together  during  those  years 
as  fellow-students  or  instructors,  or  members  of 
the  community,  still  meet  each  other  with  a  warmer 
grasp  of  the  hand  in  memory  of  those  days  of  re- 
proach. It  has  occasionally  called  forth  a  criti- 
cism that  in  every  gathering  of  the  churches  east 
or  west,  a  time  is  sure  to  be  found  for  the  Oberlin 
men  and  women  to  gather  by  themselves  for  a 
social  reunion.  It  is  an  instinct  developed  in  the 
days  of  old  which  has  not  yet  spent  its  force. 

Another  result  of  the  wide-spread  disfavor  to- 
ward Oberlin  was  the  opportunity  thus  secured  of 
working  out  without  restraint  the  ideas  and  doc- 
trines which  in  a  germinal  form  had  been  planted 
here.  These  ideas  and  doctrines  found  little  hos- 
pitable entertainment  in  the  country  at  large.  The 
shadow  of  the  Westminster  Confession  rested 
upon  all  the  Puritan  churches.  Under  this  sign  Ly- 


BACCALAUREATE   SERMON.  IO7 

man  Beecher  and  Albert  Barnes  had  fought  their 
battles.  The  new  school  theology  which  had 
spread  in  a  superficial  way  through  the  land,  in 
connection  with  the  great  revivals,  had  come  to  be 
regarded  with  suspicion  even  by  its  friends,  be- 
cause it  was  feared  that  it  logically  led  to  Oberlin- 
ism ;  and  the  New  School  Presbyterian  Church, 
east  and  west,  hastened  to  vindicate  its  orthodoxy 
by  disclaiming  all  responsibility  for  Oberlin  doc- 
trine. The  Congregational  churches,  always  a 
little  apprehensive  that  they  should  seem  less  or- 
thodox than  their  Presbyterian  neighbors,  stood 
aloof  with  averted  countenance.  There  were  years 
when  the  only  organized  fellowship  of  the  churches 
in  which  Oberlin  had  any  share  was  in  the  little 
Lorain  County  Association  of  which  Oberlin  was 
the  centre.  This  association  licensed  the  students 
of  the  Senior  class  in  the  seminary,  and  when  they 
had  completed  their  course,  proceeded  to  ordain 
them  in  classes,  year  after  year,  because  there  was 
little  prospect  that  they  would  be  welcomed  by 
associations,  councils,  or  Presbyteries  in  the  field 
where  they  were  to  find  their  work.  Thus  no  ec- 
clesiastical body  in  the  land  had  any  responsibility 
in  regard  to  the  views  held  in  Oberlin,  and  Ober- 
lin was  left  to  follow  without  restraint  the  light  and 
the  truth.  The  heresy  hunter  could  make  havoc 
of  Oberlin  ideas  and  doctrines,  but  Oberlin  men 
were  beyond  his  reach.  Under  these  conditions, 
with  little  apprehension  from  ecclesiastical  bodies, 
but  with  full  loyalty  to  the  Scriptures  and  to  the 
Great  Master,  the  Oberlin  views  were  elaborated. 


I08  0 BERLIN  JUBILEE. 

In  g-eneral,  such  isolation  or  independence  would 
not  be  necessary  or  wholesome.  There  are  excep- 
tional conditions  in  which  it  is  favorable  to  the  de- 
velopment and  progress  of  the  truth.  The  studies 
in  doctrine  and  in  rehgious  experience  were  better 
pursued  here  without  the  pressure  of  outward 
supervision  and  restraint.  The  same  could  be  said 
of  the  social  and  educational  problems,  to  the  solu- 
tion of  which  Oberlin  was  to  make  its  contribution. 
The  form  which  the  educational  problem  took  at 
Oberlin  was  to  have  much  to  do  in  determming 
the  form  of  a  score  or  even  a  hundred  colleges  m 
the  West  which  were  to  be  established  withm  the 
century.  A  predominant  New  England  influence, 
such  as  must  have  operated  at  Oberlin  but  for  this 
separation  and  temporary  alienation,  would  have 
forestalled,  or  greatly  restrained,  the  development 
of  the  new  educational  ideas.  It  was  in  part  these 
experiments  in  education  which  produced  the  dis- 
trust, and  an  anxiety  to  allay  the  distrust  would 
have  seriously  interfered  with  the  experiments. 

But  from  the  human  side  of  the  situation  all  this 
antagonism  and  distrust  and  reproach  seemed  an 
unmitigated  evil.  The  success  of  the  Oberlin  en- 
terprise seemed  to  depend  upon  the  confidence 
and  favor  of  the  general  community,  and  no  set  of 
men  could  have  had  a  more  settled  conviction  of 
this  than  the  early  founders.  They  did  what  they 
could  to  allay  the  rising  storm,  but  the  matter  was 
soon  placed  beyond  their  reach.  The  only  hope 
left  was  "  by  patient  continuance  ni  well  doing," 
to  vindicate  in  the  end  their  integrity.     It  is  too 


BACCALAUREATE   SERMON.  IO9 

much  to  claim  that  their  action  was  always  wise, 
and  that  nothing  was  ever  done  which  tended  to 
produce  or  confirm  the  distrust.  They  were  hu- 
man, and  had  their  share  of  human  imperfection  ; 
but  Divine  wisdom  prevailed  over  all  and  made 
both  the  wrath  and  the  weakness  of  men  to  praise 
Him. 

It  is  pleasant  while  we  review  these  experiences 
to  remember  that  they  lie  buried  far  back  in  the 
track  of  the  fifty  years,  and  that  the  only  occasion 
we  have  for  recalling  them  is  to  signalize  the  good- 
ness and  faithfulness  of  God,  who  has  led  us 
through  the  wilderness  and  brought  us  out  into  a 
pleasant  land. 

The  restraining  grace  of  God  was  manifest  in 
the  further  fact  that  through  all  these  experiences 
the  people  of  Oberlin  were  kept  in  general  from 
bitterness  and  fanaticism.  To  human  observation 
the  circumstances  were  naturally  adapted  to  beget 
this  tendency.  The  concentration  here  of  religious 
forces  tending  to  the  intenser  forms  of  religious 
experience,  stimulated  by  the  most  powerful 
preaching,  re-enforced  by  numerous  prayer  meet- 
ings in  which  the  greatest  freedom  of  utterance 
prevailed,  and  where  occasionally  remarkable 
manifestations  of  feeling  w^ere  exhibited,  would 
seem  to  afford  a  field  in  which  the  intense  religious 
feeling  should  take  on  the  form  of  censoriousness 
or  bitterness,  or  should  break  away  from  the  regu- 
lar forms  of  manifestation  in  a  Avild  chaos  of  im- 
agination and  delusion.  Many  of  the  early  anti- 
slavery  men,  in  their  earnest  reprobation  of  the 


no  OB E RUN  JUBILEE, 

backwardness  and  stupidity  of  the  churches,  fell 
into  this  snare  of  censoriousness,  and,  finally,  of  re- 
jection of  Christianity.  The  fanaticism  of  unbelief 
could  not  have  befallen  Oberlin,  but  the  fanaticism 
of  denunciation  and  repudiation  of  the  churches 
was  not  so  improbable  ;  and  it  would  have  been 
equally  disastrous.  The  Apostles  of  ''  Comeouter- 
ism"  in  all  its  forms,  ecclesiastical  and  political, 
and  of  the  ''Second  Adventism"  of  1843,  a  more 
amiable  but  not  less  mischievous  fanaticism,  came 
again  and  again,  confidently  expecting  to  rally  the 
Oberlin  people  to  their  standard,  but  without  any 
satisfactory  result. 

In  the  isolation  of  Oberlin  from  any  general  ec- 
clesiastical fellowship,  there  was  a  danger  more 
pressing  than  any  of  these — the  temptation  to  start 
a  new  denomination — an  Oberlin  sect.  The  pres- 
sure from  without  in  this  direction  was  very 
strong.  The  churches  in  many  quarters  were  cut- 
ting off  those  of  their  own  numbers  who  read  the 
Oberlin  Evangelist  and  had  any  S3^mpathy  with 
Oberlin  doctrine.  Ecclesiastical  bodies  were 
guarding  their  pulpits  against  the  intrusion  of 
Oberlin  ministers.  Young  men  applying  to  these 
bodies  for  an  introduction  to  the  work  of  the 
ministry  were  rejected  simply  because  they  were 
from  Oberlin.  The  reasons  given  were,  "  You  do 
not  belong  to  our  denomination.  We  could  recog- 
nize you  as  Christian  ministers,  but  in  your  own 
denomination,  not  in  ours.  You  must  go  where 
you  belong."  But  an  Oberlin  man  belonged  no- 
where, but  to  the  general  church  militant,  while 


BACCALAUREATE   SERMON.  Ill 

pressing  on  to  join  the  church  triumphant.  It  re- 
quired great  clearness  of  vision  and  earnestness  of 
purpose  and  faith  in  the  future,  on  the  part  of  the 
leading  men  at  Oberlin,  to  avoid  the  folly  of  slip- 
ping into  a  new  sect,  and  this  grace  was  the  gift 
of  God  to  his  servants.  The  radicalisms  of  Ober- 
lin, whatever  they  were,  did  not  become  "  hobbies." 
They  came  in  as  questions  of  doctrine  or  duty,  to 
be  thoroughly  and  impartially  considered,  and  if 
sustained,  to  be  accorded  their  proper  place  in  the 
Christian  thought  and  life.  Oberlin  was  popularly 
supposed  to  be  very  peculiar,  but  it  never  adopted 
any  special  peculiarity  unless  it  be  a  peculiarity  to 
follow  the  injunction  of  the  apostle :  "  Prove  all 
things  ;  hold  fast  that  which  is  good,"  and  to 
"  work  for  the  good  of  being  in  general." 

But  the  hours  of  the  day  would  be  exhausted  in 
the  attempt  to  pass  over,  even  in  brief  review,  the 
indications  of  God's  restraining  and  guiding  hand 
in  the  work  of  the  fifty  years.  The  history  of 
Oberlin  can  be  explained  only  in  accordance  with 
the  common  faith  of  the  saints  of  all  generations: 
"  The  angel  of  the  Lord  encampeth  round  about 
them  that  fear  him  and  delivereth  them."  We 
have  received  from  the  fathers  a  heritage  rich  in 
the  memories  of  patient,  and  prayerful,  and  self- 
denying  labor,  and  infinitely  richer  in  the  tokens 
of  Providential  care  and  favor  with  which  the 
great  Master  Builder  guided  and  sustained  and 
crowned  their  endeavors.  It  is  a  sacred  trust 
w^hich  we  receive  from  them,  and  we  can  sustain 
the  responsibilities  which  it  brings  only  by  carry- 


1 12  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

ing-  forward  the  work  in  the  same  self-denying 
spirit  in  which  they  laid  the  foundations,  and  the 
same  waiting  upon  God  for  guidance  in  the  work 
to  which  he  has  called  us.  The  building  of  the 
Lord  is  never  completed  until  the  redemption  of 
the  world  is  complete.  New  exigencies  must  con- 
tinually recur,  new  ideas  must  be  accepted,  and 
those  who  are  to  continue  the  work  must  meet  the 
new  demand?,  and  walk  according  to  the  light 
vouchsafed  to  them.  Thus  only  can  we  be  worthy 
successors  of  the  fathers  who  wrought  so  well ; 
and  the  divine  Presence  which  led  them  through 
the  wilderness,  a  pillar  of  cloud  by  day  and  of  fire 
by  night,  shall  go  before  the  children,  leading  them 
into  the  land  of  promise,  and  abiding  forever  in  the 
temple  which  they  shall  build  to  Flis  name. 

My  Young  Friends  of  the  Graduating 
Classes  :  This  brief  review  of  the  story  of  your 
Alma  Mater  brings  with  it  the  lesson  of  the  hour 
for  you.  It  sets  forth  the  true  idea  of  faithful 
work,  in  every  department  of  life.  Not  many  of 
you  probably  will  be  called  to  establish  colleges 
or  communities,  although  this  very  work  has  been 
appointed  to  many  of  those  who  have  gone  forth 
from  this  school  during  the  fifty  years.  But  some 
service  to  God  and  to  mankind  will  fall  to  the  lot 
of  every  one  of  you.  Whether  that  work  may 
seem  to  you  conspicuous  or  obscure,  do  it  with  all 
fidelity.  It  is  faithfulness  that  counts  in  the  avail- 
able moral  forces  of  the  world.  The  faithful  soul 
works  with  God,  and  the  house  which  the  Lord 


BACCALAUREATE    SERMON.  II3 

builds  will  not  finally  disappoint  the  human  builder. 
Those  who  lay  the  foundations  may  not,  with  mor- 
tal vision,  see  the  capstone  brought  in  with  rejoic- 
ing, but  earnest,  faithful  work  will  not  fail  of 
its  results  and  its  reward.  Do  with  your  might 
what  your  hand  finds  to  do,  and  trust  the  Master 
to  work  it  into  His  great  plan.  Your  feeble  effort 
may  seem  like  the  sowing  of  "  a  handful  of  corn  in 
the  mountain  top,  but  the  fruit  thereof  shall  shake 
like  Lebanon."  Weakness  even,  as  men  count 
weakness,  under  God's  hand,  becomes  strength 
and  power.  "  He  hath  chosen  the  w^eak  things  ol 
the  world  to  confound  the  mighty." 

Be  not  over  anxious  for  the  favor  of  men.  Your 
first  concern  will  be  that  your  ways  please  the 
Lord.  If  men  approve,  it  is  well.  Their  favor  is 
pleasant  and  often  helpful,  but  it  is  not  essential. 
"  When  a  man's  ways  please  the  Lord,  he  maketh 
even  his  enemies  to  be  at  peace  with  him."  The 
vindication  may  be  long  delayed — possibly  de- 
ferred to  that  coming  day  when  the  secrets  of  all 
hearts  shall  be  revealed.  What  we  call  popularity 
is  sometimes  a  hindrance  rather  than  a  help  in  any 
great  or  beneficent  work.  In  every  case  it  is  a 
hindrance  if  it  be  purchased  by  the  least  surrender 
of  truth  or  duty.  The  idea  of  securing  an  influ- 
ence by  holding  back  the  expression  of  important 
truth,  with  the  idea  that  this  accumulated  influence 
can  at  length  be  brought  to  bear  in  support  of  that 
truth,  is  an  illusion  and  a  snare.  The  influence 
which  is  purchased  thus,  must  be  nursed  in  the 
same  way,  and  hence   can  never  be  used  in  the 


114  OBERLIN  JUBILEE, 

good  cause.  Do  not  undertake  to  preserve  your 
influence  by  standing  aloof  from  any  righteous 
cause.  The  influence  thus  preserved  is  not  worth 
the  keeping.  It  is  not  influence  in  any  proper 
sense  of  the  word.  It  is  a  surrender  of  influence 
for  the  sake  of  ease  or  popularity.  The  idol  of  the 
people,  the  man  whom  they  will  pet  and  applaud, 
is  not  in  a  condition  to  be  their  teacher  or  leader. 
Popularity  is  a  different  thing  from  influence.  The 
Saviour  did  not  regard  himself  as  having  acquired 
great  influence  when  the  people  were  ready  to 
take  him  by  force  and  make  him  a  king.  He  with- 
drew himself  until,  in  a  more  quiet  season,  he 
could  bring  his  spiritual  and  saving  power  to 
bear  upon  them.  Do  not  measure  your  influence 
by  the  following  or  the  shouting  which  attends 
you,  but  by  your  power  to  draw  men  in  the  way 
of  truth  and  righteousness. 

Nor  is  it  essential  to  the  prosperity  of  any  good 
work  you  may  undertake,  that  you  should  be  able 
to  enlist  in  the  cause,  those  who  seem  to  be  lead- 
ers in  society,  or  who  stand  in  the  high  places  of 
the  world.  Great  and  beneficent  movements 
among  men  rarely  begin  in  this  way.  The  billow 
which  breaks  in  mighty  power  upon  the  shore,  is 
not  moved  by  the  foam  that  rides  upon  its  crest. 
The  origin  of  the  movement  is  deeper  or  more 
remote.  Nor  will  you  need  to  attain  high  posi- 
tion yourselves  in  order  to  work  effectively  for 
human  well-being.  "  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
like  unto  leaven  which  a  woman  took  and  hid  in 
three  measures  of  meal  until  the  whole  was  lea- 


BACCALAUREATE   SERMON.  II5 

vened."  Your  place  of  power  and  influence  is  the 
point  where  you  stand  ;  it  may  be  out  of  sight, 
where  the  foundations  are  laid,  but  the  building 
cannot  rise  without  the  foundation ;  and  the  Mas- 
ter Builder  is  as  much  interested  in  the  footing- 
stone  which  you  may  help  to  lay,  as  in  the  pinna- 
cle that  attracts  the  gaze  of  men.  The  resources 
at  your  command  may  seem  wholly  inadequate; 
but  you  are  working  with  God,  in  whom  all  fulness 
dwells,  and  the  treasures  of  the  earth  are  in  His 
keeping.  Where  the  work  and  the  workers  are, 
there  the  means  will  at  length  be  found. 

Go  forth,  my  young  friends,  with  earnest,  trust- 
ful hearts,  and  you  shall  not  toil  in  vain,  or  spend 
your  strength  for  naught.  Others  may  harvest 
the  seed  you  scatter,  but  the  sheaves  shall  at 
length  be  brought  in  by  your  hands  or  those  of 
others.  Few  of  the  fathers  who  put  their  lives 
into  the  Oberlin  work  at  the  beginning  are  here  to 
share  in  the  jubilee.  It  matters  little ;  the  work  is 
of  more  consequence  than  the  rejoicing.  But  the 
rejoicing  shall  be  sure  when  at  length  the  Lord 
shall  gather  His  workers  from  the  east  and  the 
west,  from  the  north  and  the  south,  from  every 
line  of  earthly  duty  and  labor,  to  sit  down  with  the 
faithful  of  all  ages  in  His  kingdom.  In  that  glad 
reunion  may  you  all  have  your  place  and  part. 
Amen. 


MISSIONARY  SERVICE. 

First  Church,  Sunday,  July  ist,  7.30  p.m. 


OBERLIN  AND   MISSIONARY  WORK. 

BY    REV.    M.    E.    STRIEBY,    '4I, 
Sec'y  A.  M.  A.,  New  York. 

Oberlin  can  never  forget  the  debt  it  owes  to 
the  great  revivals  which  preceded  it.  In  those 
heights  of  Lebanon,  its  materials  were  prepared ; 
the  colonists,  the  professors,  the  students,  and  the 
patrons.  Nor  can  Oberlin  ever  forget  its  debt  to 
Charles  G.  Finney,  for  the  work  he  wrought  in 
those  revivals  before  Oberlin  was ;  a  work  for 
Oberlin  onl}^  surpassed  by  what  he  did  for  it  as 
professor  and  president  of  the  institution.  The 
genuineness  of  those  revivals  is  seen  in  the  charac- 
ter of  the  converts  who,  for  two  generations, 
constituted  largely  the  bone  and  sinew  of  the 
churches.  The  breadth  of  those  revivals  is  shown 
in  the  impulse  they  gave  to  education,  reform, 
and  missions.  The  impulse  to  education  has  one 
monument  at  least — Oberlin  itself.  The  impulse 
to  reform  was  mainly  directed  against  slavery. 
Oberlin  was  with  that  impulse  at  the  beginning 


OBERLIN  AND  MISSIONARY    WORK,  11 7 

and  ill  the  end.  The  impulse  to  missions  reached 
Oberlin.  This  facet  of  the  Oberhn  diamond  it  is 
given  to  me  to  polish  and  present.  Would  that 
the  task  had  fallen  to  more  skilful  hands. 

The  anti-slavery  zeal  gave  direction  largely  to 
the  missionary  efforts  of  Oberlin  students;  they 
sought  the  most  needy  and  neglected — the  refu- 
gees in  Canada,  the  newly-emancipated  slaves  in 
Jamaica,  the  neglected  Indians  of  our  western 
border,  and  the  degraded  inhabitants  of  malarial 
Africa.  Several  local  societies  had  been  formed 
to  reach  these  people;  but,  in  1846,  they  were 
united  in  the  American  Missionary  Association. 
Oberlin  and  the  Association  were  as  essential  to 
each  other  as  the  two  halves  of  a  pair  of  scissors. 
Oberlin  was  training  fishermen — fishers  of  men — 
but  they  had  no  boats,  nets,  nor  supphes,  and  the 
great  missionary  organizations  of  the  day  were 
largely  unwilling  to  commission  the  Oberlin  here- 
tics and  abolitionists.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
Association  had  boats,  nets  and  supplies,  but  it 
could  not  obtain  elsewhere  than  in  Oberlin  men 
who  were  in  sympathy  with  it  and  the  slave.  The 
union  between  Oberlin  and  the  Association  in 
mission-work  was  attained  by  the  appointment  of 
Prof.  Geo.  Whipple,  a  Lane  Seminary  and  Ober- 
lin student,  as  secretary  of  the  new  missionary 
organization,  a  man  whose  integrity,  ability,  and 
conscientious  devotion  to  his  work  will  ever  reflect 
the  highest  credit  on  both  Oberlin  a*nd  the  Asso- 
ciation. 

Before  entering  upon  the  more  distinctively  mis- 


Il8  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

sionary  labors  of  the  Oberlin  students,  let  me  refer 
briefly  to  a  few  that  were  less  prominent  and  per- 
manent. Rev.  John  S.  Griffin  and  other  students 
sought  to  benefit  the  Indians  on  the  Pacific  Coast 
at  an  early  day.  The  refugees  who  fled  to  Canada 
enjoyed  the  faithful  labors  of  several  students, 
prominent  among  whom  was  Rev.  Hiram  Wil- 
son, who,  if  he  somewhat  resembled  Moses  in  the 
matter  of  eloquence,  was  Hke  him  also  in  faithful- 
ness and  consecration  to  the  upUfting  of  the  lowly. 
Dr.  Bradley  was  not  an  Oberlin  student,  but  he 
was  an  ecclesiastical  martyr  to  his  sympathy  with 
Oberlin  views.  He  chose  his  accomplished  wife 
from  among  the  Oberlin  graduates,  and  sent  back 
his  son  to  Oberhn  to  graduate  and  return  to  Siam, 
and  these  three  have  stood  before  kings  in  preach- 
ing the  gospel. 

WEST  INDIA  MISSIONS. 

When  the  clock  struck  twelve  on  the  night  of 
July  31,  1834,  the  hand  on  the  dial-plate  of  time 
marked  an  era  of  progress ;  for  at  that  hour 
800,000  slaves  were  emancipated  in  the  British 
West  India  Islands.  That  event  was  a  bugle-note 
of  victor}^  to  the  heroic  men  in  Great  Britain,  who, 
in  and  out  of  Parliament,  had  toiled  so  earnestly 
for  its  accomplishment ;  it  was  a  bugle-note  of 
ch-eer  to  those  in  America  who  struggled  to  accom- 
plish the  greater  task  of  the  emancipation  of  the 
millions  of  slaves  in  this  country.  But  there  soon 
came  misrepresentations  and    detractions.      The 


OBERLIN  AND  MISSIONARY    WORK.  II9 

Islands  were  reported  to  be  ruined.  To  ascertain 
the  facts,  Rev.  Jas.  A.  Thome,  the  gallant  young 
Kentuckian,  a  student  of  Lane  and  Oberlin,  was 
sent  thither  with  Mr.  Kimball,  in  1836.  Their 
book, ''  Emancipation  in  the  West  Indies,"  deserves 
a  place  in  every  anti-slavery  library.  I  can  give 
only  one  of  the  facts  they  ascertained.  It  relates 
to  the  hour  of  emancipation.  As  that  hour  drew 
near,  the  few  whites  on  the  Island  were  filled  with 
alarm.  Some  of  the  vessels  in  the  harbor  at 
Kingston  stood  out  from  port  for  fear  of  being 
involved  in  the  impending  ruin.  But  how  was 
the  night  spent  by  the  blacks  ?  They  spent  the 
first  part  of  it  in  songs  and  prayer,  and  when 
the  midnight  hour  approached  the  minister  sug- 
gested that  they  receive  the  boon  of  freedom  in 
silence  and  on  their  knees.  Instantly  the  audience 
knelt  down,  and  only  an  occasional  sob  broke  the 
silence.  When  the  hour  of  midnight  rung  out  on 
the  air,  there  followed  another  moment's  silence, 
and  then  the  people  sprang  to  their  feet,  and  with 
tears  of  gratitude  and  shouts  of  alleluia,  greeted 
each  other  and  poured  forth  their  praises  unto 
God.  Not  a  hair  from  the  head  of  any  man  fell  by 
the  emancipation  of  the  West  India  slaves. 

The  first  Oberlin  missionary  to  Jamaica  was  the 
thoughtful  and  pious  David  S.  Ingraham,  who 
went  out  in  1837,  and  formed  the  plan  of  a  self- 
supporting  mission.  He  died  ere  long ;  but  in 
1839,  J.  O.  Beardslee,  Amos  Dresser,  Ralph  Tyler, 
C.  S.  Renshaw,  and  Geo.  L.  Hovey — Oberlin  stu- 
dents— took    up    his    work   in   the  West    Indies 


120  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

These  brethren  were  greeted  most  remarkably  on 
their  arrival  at  Kingston.  They  had  been  seated 
in  the  house  scarcely  an  hour  when  they  heard 
that  four  men  from  the  mountains  were  inquiring 
for  them.  On  being  introduced,  their  first  ques- 
tion was,  ''Are  you  the  missionaries?"  They 
said  further :  ''  Ever  since  God  gave  us  freedom, 
we  have  been  praying  Him  to  send  us  a  mis- 
sionary, and  we  tried  to  get  ready  for  him.  We 
went  to  the  bush  and  brought  timber  and  thatch, 
and  built  us  a  church.  We  sent  to  Kingston  to 
see  if  a  missionary  had  come,  but  though  disap- 
pointed then,  we  met  every  Sunday  and  prayed 
God  to  send  the  missionary,  for  we  said,  '  What 
good  is  it  to  have  our  freedom,  if  we  cannot  learn 
about  God  who  gave  it  to  us  ? '  Now, we  have  come 
again  ;  and  just  before  we  came  to  the  city  we  went 
again  into  the  bush  and  prayed  God  not  to  dis- 
appoint us  this  time,  and  now  we  have  found 
)^ou !"  It  was  a  joyful  meeting — the  symbol  of 
God's  hand.  The  people  were  liberal  according 
to  their  means ;  but  soon  the  change  came  that 
enforced  their  poverty,  and  the  plan  of  a  self-sup- 
porting mission  was  abandoned.  The  mission- 
aries, though  they  toiled  under  meagre  support, 
were  followed  by  others  from  Oberlin — Wolcott, 
Thompson,  Olds — but  space  would  fail  to  give  the 
names  of  the  rest  that  swelled  the  number  of  the 
Oberlin  students  in  the  Jamaica  mission  to  nearly 
forty. 

It  is  customary  to  depreciate  the  results  of  the 
Jamaica  Mission  ;  but  it  was  no  failure.     The  chil- 


OBERLTN  AND   MISSIONARY    WORK.  \1\ 

dren  were  gathered  into  schools,  and  the  people 
into  churches.  Industries  were  promoted,  espec- 
ially by  the  industrial  school  at  Providence,  under 
the  auspices  of  Mr.  Wolcott,  and  all  these  efforts 
aided  to  save  Jamaica  from  ruin.  There  were 
difficulties;  and  these  must  be  looked  at  as  hin- 
drance^  to  the  work  of  the  brethren  and  as  lessons 
to  America.  (i.)  The  Apprenticeship  system, 
which  prevailed  from  1834  to  1840,  was  lost  time. 
The  people  had  really  neither  slavery  nor  liberty, 
and  were  discouraged.  The  plan  adopted  in  this 
country  was  bolder ;  at  two  grand  leaps  the  slave 
arose  to  freedom  and  the  use  of  the  ballot. 
This  plan  will  be  wiser  if  the  people  are  pre- 
pared adequately  for  their  new  position.  (2.)  In- 
adequate provision  for  education  was  a  fatal 
mistake.  Twenty  million  pounds  sterling  were 
given  by  the  British  Government  to  the  masters, 
but  almost  nothing  was  done  for  the  education  of 
the  ex-slaves.  The  British  Government  has  seen  its 
mistake,  and  in  the  last  few  years  has  endeavored 
adequately  to  remedy  it.  America  needs  to  heed 
this  lesson  as  one  of  the  most  important  that  West 
India  emancipation  can  teach  it.  We  must  edu- 
cate our  freedmen.  (3.)  The  smallness  of  the  white 
population  left  in  the  Islands  was  a  great  draw- 
back. The  blacks  need  the  presence  and  stimulus 
of  the  whites.  When  left  in  masses  alone,  they 
deteriorate  into  indolence,  ignorance  and  supersti- 
tion. It  is  difficult  to  get  at  the  exact  number  of 
white  people  left  in  the  Islands  after  emancipa- 
tion—  probably   they   did  not   count   more   than 


1 2  2  OBERLIN  J  UBIL  EE. 

three  per  cent  of  the  population.  In  America 
the  figures  are  all  the  other  way.  The  blacks 
probably  constitute  but  about  thirty-four  per  cent 
in  the  Southern  States.  But  the  experience  in 
Jamaica  shows  the  folly  of  the  plan  once  advo- 
cated in  this  country,  of  massing  the  blacks  in 
certain  territories,  in  entire  separation  from  the 
whites.  It  shows,  also,  the  great  evil  still  existing 
— a  caste  prejudice  which  denies  the  black  man 
fnee  access  to  the  trades,  crafts,  schools  and  profes- 
sions, side  by  side  with  the  whites.  The  blacks  are 
here  to  stay  and  to  grow,  and  they  must,  as  was 
said  of  old  to  one  of  a  proscribed  race,  ''  dwell  in 
the  presence  of  all  his  brethren."  They  intend  to 
stay.  A  colored  orator  in  one  of  the  annual  meet- 
ings of  the  American  Missionary  Association  gave 
voice  to  this  purpose,  and  amid  laughter  and 
applause,  closed  his  remarks  by  quoting  the  words 
of  Ruth :  ''  Whither  thou  goest,  I  will  go ;  thy 
people  shall  be  my  people,  and  thy  God  my  God ; 
where  thou  diest,  I  will  die,  and  there  will  I  be 
buried." 

AFRICAN   MISSIONS. 

The  story  of  the  Mendi  Mission  opens  like  a 
romance  of  the  sea.  That  '*long,  low,  rakish 
schooner"  that  was  seen  in  the  waters  of  Long 
Island  Sound,  making  strange  movements,  boarded 
by  a  revenue  officer,  revealed  a  singular  body  of 
passengers.  They  v/ere  mostly  blacks.  Two 
Spaniards  were  in  chains,  and  claimed  to  be  the 
owners   of  the   blacks,  who,  it   seems,  had   been 


OBERUM  AND  MISSIONARY    WORK.  1 23 

moved  by  a  very  American  and  Anglo-Saxon  idea, 
which  is  also  scriptural,  that  if  they  could  be 
free,  they  would  *'  use  it  rather."  Now,  it  always 
happens  that  when  people  determine  to  be  free, 
somebody  gets  hurt,  and  the  effort  of  these  blacks 
was  no  exception.  They  were  brought  into  the 
port  of  New  London,  arraigned  in  the  courts  on 
the  charge  of  murder.  Slavery  lifted  up  its  voice, 
and  demanded  that  they  should  be  executed  or 
consigned  to  slavery.  Some  good  and  true  men, 
warm  friends  of  Oberlin  and  of  the  anti-slavery 
cause — among  whom  were  Tappan,  Leavitt,  and 
Jocelyn — demanded  that  the  blacks  should  have  a 
fair  hearing.  They  raised  the  funds,  and  pushed 
the  suit  into  the  U.  S.  Court;  employed  able  legal 
counsel — among  others  Roger  S.  Baldwin  and  the 
*'  old  man  eloquent,"  John  Quincy  Adams — and, 
after  a  protracted  struggle,  the  prisoners  were 
declared  free  !  The  decision  was  received  with 
intense  interest,  and  spread  rapidly  over  the  coun- 
try. Pres.  Fairchild  says  it  reached  Oberlin  from 
Washington  in  nine  days !  It  was  decided  to 
return  these  people  to  their  native  land  in  West 
Africa,  and  to  send  missionaries  with  them. 

Before  starting  with  the  missionaries  and  the  freed 
prisoners,  let  us  take  a  glance  at  Africa  and  the 
reasons  for  sending  a  mission  thither.  That  won- 
derful land,  the  reproach  to  civilization  and  Chris- 
tianity, with  its  burning  deserts,  its  rich  soil,  its 
deep  jungles,  its  great  rivers,  its  broad  lakes, 
contains  the  most  degraded  people  on  the 
face  of  the  earth.     Slavery  is  its  great  curse,  for 


124  OB E RUN  JUBILEE. 

that  necessitates  wars  for  the  capture  of  slaves, 
and  war  hinders  the  cultivation  of  the  soil  and  all 
industries,  and  holds  the  people  in  uncertainty, 
ignorance  and  superstition.  No  nation  on  earth 
was  more  guilty  in  stimulating  those  wars  for  the 
capture  of  slaves  than  America,  and  it  is  no  won- 
der, therefore,  that  anti- slavery  Oberlin  should 
furnish  the  missionaries  to  go  with  these  redeemed 
captives.  Raymond  and  Steele  were  the  first. 
Steele  was  compelled  to  succumb  to  the  climate, 
and  returned,  but  Raymond  remained  to  do  a 
great  and  good  work.  Soon  Thompson,  Tefft, 
Arnold,  Brooks  and  others,  fifteen  in  all,  went  from 
Oberlin.  Eight  of  this  number  died  there.  They 
had  three  battles  to  fight.  The  first  was  with  the 
climate.  This  was  so  deadly  that  a  missionary 
stood  forth  to  preach,  and  soon  sunk  down ;  an- 
other stood  on  his  grave  soon  to  follow,  reminding 
us  of  a  fact  in  Scottish  history  given  by  Walter 
Scott,  where,  in  a  battle  between  two  fierce  High- 
laJnd  clans,  the  foster-father  of  one  of  the  chiefs,  a 
young  man,  placed  one  of  his  own  seven  sons  in 
front,  and  when  he  fell  in  defence  of  his  chief,  the 
old  man's  voice  rung  out,  ''One  more  for  Hector," 
and  when  he  fell  the  call  resounded  again,  and 
when  the  last  was  slain,  the  old  man  himself  stood 
in  the  deadly  breach.  Thus  Oberlin,  not  with  the 
stentorian  voice  of  the  old  Highlander,  but  in  tear- 
ful sympathy,  and  yet  with  unflinching  consecra- 
tion, said,  as  each  of  her  children  fell,  *'  One  more 
for  Christ  and  benigl  ed  Africa,"  until  the  eight 
died  on  the  spot,  and  the  rest  returned  home  to 


OB  E  RUN  AND   MISSIONARY    WORK.  12  5 

drag  out  their  days  in  impaired  health.  The  next 
battle  was  with  war.  This  raged  round  the  mis- 
sion from  the  outset,  but  Bro.  Raymond  was  the 
advocate  of  peace,  and  the  mission-house  was  the 
city  of  refuge  for  the  fugitives  from  either  con- 
tending  army.  It  was  reserved  for  Bro.  Thomp- 
son to  end  the  war.  He  was  chosen  umpire  by 
the  contending  chiefs ;  and,  after  repeated  and 
wearying  excursions,  and  ten  interviews  or  coun- 
cils with  both  parties,  he  at  length  succeeded. 
Then  came  the  joy  which  peace  brings.  Warriors 
met  and  fell  on  each  other's  necks.  Chiefs,  who 
were  for  years  enemies,  now  shook  hands  and 
embraced  each  other  with  the  affection  of  long- 
separated  friends ;  sisters,  wives,  and  daughters, 
long  captives,  fell  into  each  other's  arms,  weeping 
for  joy.  A  chief's  daughter  was  seen  running  to 
embrace  her  father's  feet,  a  wife  hastened  to  wel- 
come her  husband  and  children,  and  entire  towns 
were  filled  with  cries  of  gladness.  Geo.  Thomp- 
son !  one  of  the  beatitudes  is  thine :  "  Blessed  are 
the  peacemakers."  The  last  battle  was  with  sin 
and  degradation,  and  these  were  met  by  schools 
and  churches  and  industries,  uplifting  the  igno- 
rant, converting  souls,  and  sending  peace  and 
prosperity  abroad,  the  joyous  results  of  which  are 
yet  to  be  gathered  for  the  glqry  of  God  and  the 
redemption  of  Africa.  The  wails  of  the  slave- 
ship  as  she  bore  the  victims  to  America  were  heard 
by  the  waves  of  the  Atlantic.  The  return  of 
Afric's  children  to  the  land  of  their  fathers,  bear- 
ing the  gospel  of  Christ,  will  make  those  waves 


126  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

resound  with  the  song  of  thanksgiving  and  the 
voice  of  consecrated  prayer. 

THE   INDIANS. 

The  actual  Indian  of  Northern  Minnesota,  in 
1843,  was  not  the  Indian  of  Cooper's  novels,  and 
the  way  to  reach  him  at  that  time  was  not  by  the 
rail  and  palace  car,  as  that  region  can  now  be 
visited.  Pres.  Fairchild  says:  *' There  is  proba- 
bly no  mission-field  to-day  on  the  face  of  the 
earth  more  difficult  to  reach  than  this  was  at  that 
time."  The  mission  was  undertaken  under  a  local 
society,  and  transferred  to  the  American  Mission- 
ary Association  in  1846.  I  find  at  that  date  the 
names  of  Oberlin  men  as  missionaries :  Bardwell, 
Barnard,  Lewis,  Adams,  Spencer,  Wright.  Others 
followed,  bringing  the  array  of  Oberlin  students 
in  this  mission  to  the  number  of  David's  mighty 
n>en — thirty. 

The  hardships  of  travel  encountered  by  these 
missionaries  can  hardly  be  exaggerated.  After 
leaving  the  bounds  of  civilization,  they  had  to 
traverse  from  600  to  800  miles  of  a  region  totally 
uninhabited  by  white  people.  After  a  short  visit 
at  home,  Mr.  Wright  returned  to  the  mission, 
taking  his  young  wife  with  him — their  wedding 
tour.  It  was  a  journey  of  over  a  month,  made  in 
a  canoe.  They  were  both  compelled  to  walk  at 
intervals  twenty-two  miles  in  the  swamps  along 
the  side  of  the  stream,  until  they  reached  Mr.  Bar- 
nard's station.  These  walks  were  varied  by  sick- 
ness ;  Mr.  Wright  sometimes  had  chills  every  day, 


OBERLIN  AND   MISSIONARY    WORK.  1 2/ 

but  at  Mr.  Barnard's  station  he  recovered.  There 
remained  yet  twenty  miles  of  their  journey,  and  this 
was  undertaken  on  foot,  but  soon  a  storm  brought 
five  inches  of  snow.  Mr.  Wright  says:  "  My  wife 
was  very  lame,  and  what  woman  would  not  be 
after  walking  twenty  long  miles  through  mire  and 
water,  over  high  hills  and  through  gullies,  in  snow 
from  four  to  five  inches  deep."  The  good  man 
actually  seemed  to  think  that  some  apology  was 
needed  for  his  wife's  becoming  lame !  Mr.  Bar- 
nard reports  a  journey  in  one  of  the  hottest  days 
of  the  hottest  summer,  with  the  mosquitoes  so 
thick  that  his  little  child's  hair  was  matted,  and 
her  ears  full  of  blood  from  the  stings.  I  have 
heard  Mr.  Bardwell  tell  of  the  mosquitoes  being 
so  thick  that  if  a  club  were  thrown  into  the  air, 
its  wake  could  be  seen  among  them.  I  have  heard 
him  tell  of  the  night  when  a  party  of  the  mission- 
aries on  their  journey  could  find  no  couch  amid 
the  pouring  rain,  except  the  branches  of  the  trees, 
and  no  hope  of  a  fire  except  from  three  or  four  old- 
fashioned  friction  matches ;  of  the  anxiety  when 
one  and  another  of  these  were  drawn  through  the 
sand-paper  and  went  out ;  of  the  prayerful  suspense 
when  the  last  was  drawn  through,  and  of  the 
gratitude  when  it  ignited.  A  fire  was  made  and 
precious  lives  were  saved. 

But  not  only  were  there  exposure  and  danger 
in  the  journeyings,  but  there  were  toil  and  self- 
denial  in  the  work.  The  missionaries  were  com- 
pelled to  fell  the  timber,  clear  the  land,  build  their 
houses,  cultivate  the  soil  for  themselves  and  aid  in 


1 2 8  OBERLIN  J  UBILEE. 

doing  the  same  thing  afterwards  for  the  Indians, 
But  all  this  they  did,  and  saw  not  only  the  indus- 
trious habits  of  the  Indians  begun,  but  the  schools 
opened  for  the  children,  and  the  church  formed,  in 
which  so  substantial  a  work  was  done  that  Mr. 
Wright  even  now  finds  the  happy  results  in  the 
pious  lives  and  triumphant  deaths  of  aged  Indians, 
the  converts  of  those  days.  The  change  wrought 
can  be  indicated  in  a  sentence :  When  the  mission- 
aries went  there,  the  Indians  cultivated  almost  no 
land,  and  their  only  domestic  animals  were  dogs. 
They  maintained  a  precarious  existence  by  hunt- 
ing and  fishing  and  the  gathering  of  wild  rice,  with 
starvation  as  no  uncommon  experience.  In  a  few 
years  these  Indians  raised  their  own  supplies  ot 
corn  and  potatoes,  with  some  to  sell  to  procure 
other  necessaries ;  they  began  to  build  houses  for 
themselves ;  had  the  benefit  of  a  saw-mill  and  a 
grist-mill,  with  the  blessings  of  a  church  and 
boarding-schools. 

The  mission  was  abandoned  in  1859.  The  rea^ 
sons  were  the  wars  between  the  Ojibwas  and  the 
Sioux,  the  ^v^nderings  of  the  people,  making 
school  and  home-life  precarious,  and  their  growing 
indifference  to  progress.  This  last  was  occasioned 
by  the  incoming  of  the  white  man's  civilization. 
This  is  Like  the  turning  of  a  river  into  a  new 
channel  over  dry  ground,  covered  with  brush  and 
stones.  Its  first  sweep  is  that  of  turbid  water 
rushing  over  old  barriers — wholly  foul  and  dan- 
gerous. But  by  and  by  the  waters  become  clear, 
the  channels  fixed,  and  verdure  and  fruitfulncss 


OB E RUN  AND   MISSIONARY    WORK.  1 29 

adorn  their  courses.  The  mission  among"  the 
Ojibwas  met  this  flood  in  its  first  rush,  and 
yielded,  waiting  not  for  the  coming  of  the  better 
day. 

A  few  words  should  here  be  said  on  the  present 
and  future  Indian  problem  of  America.  Anew  im- 
pulse has  been  given  to  Indian  civilization  since  Gen. 
Grant's  peace  policy  was  inaugurated.  More  has 
been  accomplished  in  that  time  than  in  any  pre- 
vious period  ef  equal  length  since  the  landing  of 
the  Pilgrims.  The  schools  at  Hampton  and  Car- 
lisle are  accomplishing  a  great  work,  and  others 
like  them  should  be  established  among  the  Indians 
themselves.  The  feeling  pervades  the  nation  that 
it  is  a  shame  to  continue  to  make  war  on  this 
handful  of  people.  We  have  treated  them  as  if 
they  were  wasps  to  be  crushed  in  our  hands.  We 
have  found  that  the  stings  we  received  were  worse 
than  the  injury  we  inflicted.  We  must  make  them 
men  like  ourselves  in  intelligence  and  virtue,  and 
then  we  shall  respect  them,  because  they  are  enti- 
tled to  respect. 

THE   FREEDMEN. 

The  work  in  the  South  was  not  confined  to 
Oberlin.  The  culmination  of  the  anti-slavery 
struggle  was  in  the  storm-cloud  of  war,  with  the 
battle  of  the  warrior,  with  confused  noise  and 
garments  rolled  in  blood.  At  the  first  lifting  of 
this  cloud  there  began  the  gathering  of  the  rain- 
bow, bringing  light  and  knowledge  to  the  slave. 


130  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

On  the  face  of  the  retreating  tempest  the  rainbow 
spread,  and  when  the  storm  had  passed,  the  rain- 
bow spanned  the  sky,  a  promise  not  only  of  in- 
struction to  the  blacks,  but  an  assurance  that  no 
more  should  civil  war  rage  in  our  country.  Ober- 
lin  had  her  share  both  in  the  storm  and  in  the 
rainbow.  Others  will  tell  of  the  feats  of  arms  of 
her  sons.  Let  me  tell  of  their  work  for  peace. 
Her  worthiest  sons  and  daughters  went  forth  for 
this:  Hiram  Eddy,  G.  W.  Andrews,  E.  M.  Cra- 
vath,  E.  H.  Fairchild  and  others  being  the  leaders. 
In  nearly  all  the  institutions  of  the  American  Mis- 
sionary Association  in  the  South  they  are  found, 
and  are  in  large  measure  the  elements  of  strength 
and  power. 

But  these  events  are  recent  and  familiar.  I  ask 
your  attention  to  what  remains  yet  to  be  done: 
We  must  complete  the  work  of  emaiicipation.  We  com- 
plained of  slavery  that  it  fettered  the  body  and 
the  soul.  The  emancipation  of  1863  struck  the 
fetters  from  the  body  only.  We  must  emancipate 
from  ignorance.  With  all  that  has  been  done  to 
this  end,  there  were  200,000  more  illiterate  voters 
in  1880  than  in  1870.  Redoubled  efforts  are  essen- 
tial here.  We  must  give  spiritual  emancipation. 
With  all  that  has  been  done  in  this  regard,  the 
work  of  two  generations  will  yet  be  needed  to 
bring  the  blacks  of  the  South  up  to  the  level  of 
the  lowest  home  missionary  work  in  the  West. 

But  our  attention  is  turned  now  to  the  ''poor 
whites."  R  is  said  that  they  deserve  of  us  as 
much  as  the  blacks  do.     I  deny  it.     The  white 


OBERLIN  AND  MISSIONARY    WORK.  I3I 

boy  in  the  South  has  nothing  but  himself  to  hinder 
his  progress.  He  has  open  before  him  all  the 
avenues  of  advancement;  he  has  entrance  to  all 
the  common  schools  and  colleges ;  he  has  access 
to  all  the  trades  and  professions.  The  black  boy, 
on  the  other  hand,  has  on  him  the  weight  of  200 
years  of  slavery;  he  has  but  limited  access  to 
educational  advantages  ;  the  trades  and  professions 
are  largely  shut  against  him,  and  his  color  and 
past  condition  crush  him  beneath  the  weight  of 
caste  prejudice.  The  colored,  boy  has,  therefore, 
a  greater  claim  on  our  sympathy  and  help  than 
the  white  boy. 

We  must  emancipate  these  people  from  color 
prejudic  .  Slavery  was  a  cancer.  It  was  not 
cured  by  emolients.  The  knife,  or  rather  the 
sword,  had  tO  be  used ;  but  caste  prejudice,  its 
tap-root,  is  still  left — a  prejudice  that,  in  the  vast 
nations  of  heathei.  lands — in  India,  in  China,  in 
Japan — is  the  great  hindrance  of  the  gospel.  We 
must  conquer  this  in  America  for  the  world,  as  we 
conquered  slavery. 

The  new  movement  in  the  South  for  Congrega- 
tionalisn  is  important.  An  agreement  has  been 
reached  between  the  two  Congregational  societies 
working  in  the  South.  There  is  no  question  as  to 
the  purpose  of  the  officers  of  these  societies  to 
carry  out  this  agreement  honorably.  The  great 
danger  is  that  in  the  progress  of  events  the  real 
issue  will  be  overlooked,  and  color  prejudice  be 
permitted  to  rule.  Should  such  a  result  follow  I 
should  feel  called  upon  to  denounce  it,  and  all  the 


132  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

more  if  it  should  occur  under  the  auspices  of  the 
society  I  represent.  Principle  is  more  than  any 
ism  or  society.  I  would  rather  have  in  the  South 
ten  churches  and  schools  that  were  unequivocal  in 
their  attitude  against  caste  prejudice  than  a  thou- 
sand churches  that  evaded  or  overlooked  the  issue. 
The  state,  the  pulpit,  and  the  press  have  done 
something  for  the  elevation  of  the  colored  people. 
But  each  must  surpass  any  former  achievements, 
if  the  work  of  placing  these  blacks  fittingly  in  their 
new  position  is  accomplished.  But  there  is  some- 
thing to  be  done  that  no  laws,  and  no  preaching, 
and  no  theories,  can  accomplish.  The  victory  is 
in  the  elevation  of  the  colored  man  himself.  It  is 
not  enough  to  point  to  a  degraded  man,  and  say 
that  he  is  a  man,  and  that  Christ  died  for  him. 
We  must  make  that  man  to  be  no  longer  degraded, 
and  to  need  no  longer  our  sympathy  or  pity. 
We  must  make  him  our  equal  in  property,  intelli- 
gence and  character,  and  then  he  will  take  his 
place  among  his  fellow-men,  not  by  sufferance,  but 
by  right.  This  is  the  work  yet  to  be  done ;  and 
with  all  the  zeal  of  the  anti-slavery  era  of  1833,  I 
call  out  here  in  Oberlin,  demanding  that  what  was 
then  begun  shall  not  be  lost  sight  of  until  it  be 
accomplished.  This  nation  must  complete  the 
work  of  emancipation. 

MISSIONS   UNDER   THE  A.  B.  C.  F.  M. 

Probably  this  topic  does  not  fall  in  the  survey 
assigned  to  me.     But  I  cannot  forbear  expressing 


OBERLIN  AND  MISSIONARY    WORK.  1 33 

my  great  gratification  thatOberlin  and  the  Ameri- 
can Board  can  and  do  now  co-operate.  The  time 
was  when  Oberlin  confined  its  benefactions  to  the 
American  Missionary  ^Association,  and  when  the 
American  Board  declined  the  services  of  Oberlin 
students.  But  a  double  victory  has  been  won — 
over  the  Board  and  over  Oberlin ;  over  the  Board 
because  it  comes  to  Oberlin  for  missionaries,  and 
over  Oberlin  because,  forgetting  the  past,  it  sends 
its  students  forth  under  the  auspices  of  the  Board. 
In  conclusion :  May  Oberlin's  deep  sympathy 
for  the  poor  and  degraded  never  cease !  May  the 
missionary  spirit  in  her  grow  and  expand  until 
her  children  shall  be  multiplied  in  every  dark 
corner  of  our  own  land  and  in  all  the  benighted 
portions  of  the  whole  earth!  Oberlin  was  broad 
from  the  outset  in  her  plans.  She  sought  to 
benefit  all  sexes  and  races.  Her  range  of  academic 
studies  has  needed  no  essential  additions,  but  only 
enlargement  in  the  progress  of  the  fifty  years. 
Her  theological  views  have  been  untrammeled, 
and  her  pupils  have  been  taught  the  freest 
spirit  of  inquiry.  But  she  has  clung  to  Christ  as 
the  foundation  and  coping  stone,  and  has  neither 
defaced  nor  suffered  to  decay  any  part  of  the 
goodly  structure  of  Divine  truth.  Long  may  she 
live  to  benefit  the  world  and  promote  the  glory  of 
God  among  men ! 


THE  EARLY  HOME  MISSIONARY. 

BY   REV.   JOHN   TODD,    '44, 
Tabor,  la. 

I  NEVER  had  an  appointment  under  the  A.H.  M.  S. 
After  Oberlin,  against  the  protest  of  many  of  her 
early  students,  and  by  the  casting  vote  of  Father 
Keep,  chairman  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  opened 
her  doors  to  colored  students,  she  was  ever  recog- 
nized as  the  champion  of  the  colored  race  and 
advocate  of  abolition.  The  A.  H.  M.  Society  was 
not  sufficiently  decided  and  outspoken  on  the  ques- 
tion of  slavery  to  receive  the  patronage  and  co- 
operation of  Oberlin  men.  They  worked  through 
the  A.  M.  Association. 

When  in  1848  Deacon  Josiah  B.  Hall  and  I  accom- 
panied George  B.  Gaston  and  S.  H.  Adams  with 
their  families  to  southwestern  Iowa,  to  select  a  loca- 
tion and  begin  a  settlement,  we  passed  by  steamboat 
down  the  Ohio  and  up  the  Missouri  river.  No  rail- 
roads then  existed  west  of  Cincinnati.  Travelling  by 
steamer  day  after  day  became  often  very  monoto- 
nous and  the  hours  dragged  heavily.  One  day, 
while  on  the  Ohio  river,  I  saw  in  the  hand  of  a 
passenger  a  copy  of  Fuller  Wayland  on  Slavery. 
At  an  interval  when  he  was  not  using  it,  I  asked 
permission  to  read  it.  Instead  of  promptly  acced- 
ing to  my  request,  he   entered  upon  a  course  of 


THE   EARLY  HOME   MISSIONARY.  1 35 

questioning,  apparently  to  draw  me  out.  In  my 
zeal,  confidence  and  daring,  so  long  fostered  at 
Oberlin,  I  scorned  to  hide  my  principles,  and  a 
warm  debate  ensued.  Without  attempting  to 
trace  the  points  made  in  the  discussion,  the  posi- 
tion was  at  length  taken  that  the  slaves  of  the 
South  had  more  cause  and  a  better  right  to  rise  in 
insurrection  and  forcibly  assert  their  freedom  than 
had  our  revolutionary  sires  to  throw  off  the  yoke 
of  Great  Britain.  In  the  meantime,  the  passengers 
had  gathered  around  us  in  the  cabin,  looking  on 
and  attentively  listening  to  the  disputants.  The 
excitement  soon  extended  to  all  on  the  boat,  the 
crowd  rushed  to  the  cabin,  and  the  cry  was  raised, 
"  Damn  the  abolitionist !  kill  him  !  shoot  him  !  "  A 
slaveholder  from  Louisiana,  who  had  his  body- 
servant  with  him,  exclaimed,  "  I  wish  I  had  him ; 
I  would  swap  him  off  for  a  dog,  and  then  shoot  the 
dog."  About  this  time  the  friends  of  the  parties 
interposed  and  separated  them,  and  order  and 
quiet  was  restored.  Each  had  taken  the  other  for 
a  lawyer,  and  learned  afterwards  that  both  were 
ministers.  The  odious  abolitionist  had  so  gained 
the  favor  of  the  colored  servants  that  no  one  on 
that  boat,  from  that  time  onward,  was  served  so 
faithfully  and  generously  with  the  best  which  the 
table  afforded.  On  the  same  boat  was  a  home  mis- 
sionary (Rev.  Mr.  Bennett)  on  his  way  from  a  New 
England  seminary  to  preach  to  a  slave-holding 
church  in  Missouri.  While  himself  opposed  to 
slavery,  he  admitted  that  he  could  not  preach  his 
sentiments  on  that  subject. 


136  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

After  visiting  southwestern  Iowa  in  search  of  a  lo- 
cation for  a  settlement,  Deacon  Hall  and  I  returned 
to  Ohio  on  horseback.  Eighteen  months  later  I 
removed  my  family  to  that  place — landed  from  a 
Missouri  river  boat  on  the  first  of  July,  1850. 
During  the  interval  four  or  five  families  of  kindred 
spirit  had  organized  a  church  and  temperance 
society,  established  a  Sunday-school  and  weekly 
prayer-meeting,  and  built  a  school-house  and 
started  a  school.  My  first  public  service  was  to 
address  the  Sunday-school  on  the  4th  of  July  in  the 
unfinished  boiler-room  of  a  steam  saw-mill  that  had 
not  yet  arrived.  The  music  on  that  occasion  was 
provided  and  led  by  Mrs.  Elvira  Gaston  Piatt, 
who  is  known  to  some  here  as  one  of  Oberlin's 
earliest  pupils,  now  the  matron  of  the  Indian 
school  at  Carlisle,  Pa. 

Soon  the  missionary's  family  was  domiciled  in  a 
cozy  log  cabin,  with  shingled  roof  and  punchon 
floor.  Thus  aristocratically  housed,  the  next  step 
was  to  form  a  circuit  and  commence  his  itinerancy. 
To  the  good  people  of  Oberlin  he  was  indebted  for 
means  to  secure  a  horse  to  the  extent  of  sixty  or 
seventy  dollars.  From  eighteen  miles  north  of 
Council  Bluffs  southward  into  Missouri,  a  territory 
of  100  miles  by  40,  was  traversed  monthly  and  ser- 
vices held  at  eight  or  ten  points,  in  school-houses 
where  there  were  any,  and  in  private  houses  where 
there  were  none,  until  heavy  rains,  a  submerged 
bottom  and  unbridged  streams  in  the  summer  of 
185 1  rendered  it  impracticable.  That  was  a  good 
year   for    mosquitoes,   and   the     Missouri    bottom 


THE  EARLY  HOME   MISSIONARY.  13/ 

afforded  excellent  facilities  for  their  propagation, 
which  were  well  improved.  At  least  two  clerical 
witnesses  now  on  the  field  can  testify  that  on  favor- 
able occasions  they  rode  towards  evening  in  clouds 
that  perceptibly  dimmed  the  light  of  the  sun.  At 
our  weekly  prayer-meeting,  as  we  sang  *'  O  watch 
and  fight  and  pray,''  we  prayed  some,  fought  most 
vigorously  and  watched  but  little,  for  they  needed 
not  to  be  watched  for,  as  they  were  always  on 
hand.  But  those  times  are  past.  Like  buffaloes 
and  wolves,  they  disappear  before  advancing  civil- 
ization. 

The  "  squatters  "  in  the  neighborhood  where  we 
first  located  were  largely  from  West  Virginia, 
Kentucky  and  Missouri.  Much  of  the  Southern 
pro-slavery  spirit  existed  among  them.  A  family 
of  negroes,  who  had  by  rigid  economy  and  industry 
succeeded  in  purchasing  their  freedom,  came  into 
the  vicinity.  After  a  time  the  county  officers,  ac- 
cording to  the  existing  laws  of  Iowa,  demanded  of 
this  family  bonds,  pledging  that  they  would  not 
become  a  charge  to  the  county — otherwise  they 
were  warned  to  leave.  Their  abolition  friends 
readily  became  their  bondsmen,  and  they  remained. 
The  children  were  invited  to  attend  the  Sabbath- 
school  and  also  the  day  school.  This  gave  great 
offence,  and  one  night  our  school-house  was 
burned.  Without  church  or  place  to  hold  meet- 
ings. Deacon  Hall  opened  his  house  for  religious 
services  soon  after,  by  the  aid  of  Rev.  William 
Sim^pson,  a  M.  E.  itinerant,  who  had  located  in 
Council  Bluffs,  an  earnest  Christian,  who  consented 


138  OBERLTN  JUBILEE. 

to  co-operate  in  the  work,  with  the  distinct  un- 
derstanding that  he  should  be  permitted  to  say 
"  amen''  as  often  and  as  loud  as  he  wanted  to. 
The  Lord  blessed  us  in  that  meeting.  Of  the  con, 
verts,  one  of  them  laid  down  his  life  in  his  coun- 
try's service,  another  has  for  years  been  a  teacher 
in  our  public  schools,  and  still  another  is  one  of 
our  deacons,  and  all  have  honored  the  Christian 
life.  To  get  ahead  of  our  Methodist  friends  in  the 
occupancy  of  new  fields,  is  a  feat  worthy  of  men- 
tion, and  yet  there  was  no  Methodist  itinerant  in 
Western  Iowa  when  I  located  there.  The  first 
bell,  too,  that  ever  sounded  out  the  call  to  Chris- 
tian worship  in  Western  Iowa  still  rings  in  the 
steeple  of  Tabor  College  chapel.  The  overflow  of 
the  Missouri  bottom  in  185 1  warned  us  to  take 
higher  ground,  which  we  did  b}^  going  to  Tabor. 

Western  Iowa  settled  slowly  until  the  railroad 
reached  us  fifteen  years  ago.  Since  then  we  are 
much  nearer  our  Eastern  friends.  Then  we  were 
two  weeks  distant — now  but  twenty-four  or  thirty 
hours.  With  the  incoming  tide  of  emigration 
came  more  laborers,  who  shared  the  field  with 
those  first  on  the  ground,  and  so  curtailed  the 
parish  bounds.  No  Christian  missionary  can  be 
indifferent  to  the  modern  reforms,  while  their  need 
is  everywhere  so  apparent.  The  U.  G.  R.  R.  was 
the  first  railroad  in  Western  Iowa,  and  the  only 
one  that  ever  had  a  station  in  Tabor.  The  first 
passengers  that  took  the  train  at  Tabor  were  the 
domestics  of  a  Mormon  elder,  who  camped  there 
on  his  way  to  Utah.     All  was  peaceful  and  quiet 


THE   EARLY  HOME   MISSIONARY.  1 39 

in  the  evening,  and  in  the  morning  the  servants 
were  missing.  We  were  assured,  however,  that 
they  all  reached  their  destination  in  the  Queen's 
dominion.  In  one  case  the  conductor  was  arrested, 
and  the  train  delayed,  but  the  passengers  always 
reached  their  destination.  When  Nebraska  and 
Kansas  were  opened  for  settlement  in  1854  a  call 
was  issued  for  a  county  convention  of  such  as  were 
opposed  to  the  extension  of  slavery  into  the  Terri- 
tories. Few  Christian  people  attended  except 
those  from  Tabor  and  Civil  Bend,  as  the  first  place 
of  settlement  was  in  derision  called  by  the  '^roughs." 
So  unpopular  was  abolition  that  few  aspirants  to 
popular  favor  dared  to  openly  appear  as  advocates 
of  slavery  restriction.  The  Court  House  was  re- 
fused in  which  to  hold  our  Convention.  Most  of 
the  board  of  school  directors  denied  us  the  use  of 
the  school-house ;  but  one  more  really  noble  than 
the  rest  took  the  responsibihty  and  gave  us  the 
key.  There  we  were  followed  by  many  of  the 
baser  sort  with  clubs  and  brickbats,  with  which 
they  assailed  the  house,  but  had  not  courage 
enough  to  really  attack  the  abolitionists,  because, 
as  I  always  thought,  of  the  presence  of  ladies. 
Tabor  was  the  refuge  of  John  Brown  and  General 
Lane — the  storehouse  of  arms,  clothing,  ammuni- 
tion of  the  Free  State  men  in  time  of  the  Kansas 
troubles.  It  was  the  nearest  point  to  Kansas, 
where  the  people  were  so  fully  in  sympathy  with 
them.  The  parson  had  two  hundred  Sharp's  rifles 
stored  over  winter  in  his  cellar,  a  brass  six-pounder 
in  his  barn,  besides  boxes  of  clothing,  muskets, 


140  OB E RUN  JUBILEE. 

sabres,  etc.  The  public  square  was  their  parade- 
ground.  Two  hundred  infantry  at  one  time  occu- 
pied and  drilled  there,  and  at  another  fifty  cavalry. 
The  men  that  were  captured  with  John  Brown  at 
Harper's  Ferry  were  with  him  years  before  at 
Tabor.  We  regularly  observed  the  monthly  con- 
cert of  prayer  for  the  enslaved  until  deliverance 
came.  God  answered  our  prayer  sooner  than  we 
had  dared  to  hope,  and  our  hearts  were  filled  with 
praise. 

Thirty  years  ago  merchants  kept  a  whiskey  bar- 
rel in  their  back  room  with  the  head  knocked  out 
and  a  dipper  always  at  hand  for  the  accommoda- 
tion of  customers,  and  few,  indeed,  were  those  who 
refused  to  drink.  A  County  Temperance  Society 
was  organized,  and  held  regular  quarterly  meet- 
ings for  about  twenty  years.  Free  whiskey  disap- 
peared long  since — teetotalers  are  numerous,  and 
our  county  voted  for  the  Prohibitory  amendment 
by  several  hundreds  majority.  The  class  of  early 
settlers  that  follow  the  moving  frontier,  like  foam 
on  the  crest  of  the  tide  of  emigration,  have  long 
since  floated  by  us,  and  given  place  to  a  more  sub- 
stantial class  of  citizens.  The  gospel  has  reached 
and  rescued  some ;  but  many,  I  fear,  have  gone  to 
other  points  to  escape  gospel  restraints.  Churches 
have  grown  up  among  us,  and  emigration  has 
covered  our  fertile  prairies  with  villages  and  farm- 
houses. Revivals  have  added  from  time  to  time  to 
their  numbers  and  strength.  Efficient  and  earnest 
men  have  come  to  gather  in  the  vintage.  Council 
Bluff's  association  was  organized  in  1854  with  two 


THE  EARLY  HOME   MISSIONARY,  \\l 

churches  and  three  mmisters.  It  now  numbers 
thirty-six  churches,  twenty  ministers  and  twelve 
or  fifteen  hundred  members.  The  Church  of  Tabor 
has  been  favored  with  frequent  revivals,  and  has 
grown  from  eight  members  in  1852  to  about  three 
hundred  now.  Oberlin  has  given  us  many  noble 
helpers  in  the  good  work  of  spreading  the  gospel 
— ^Deacons  Gaston,  Cumings,  Hall  and  others  who 
caught  the  inspiration  here,  besides  many  just  as 
noble  women,  whose  hearts  and  hands  have  been 
consecrated  to  the  service  of  God.  In  imitation 
of  the  Pilgrim  policy,  we  have  planted  the  school 
close  by  the  church.  Tabor  College  and  Public 
School  are  already  casting  their  illuminating  rays 
far  into  the  surrounding  darkness.  Without  at  all 
disparaging  the  wholesome  influence  of  godly  pa- 
rents, I  may  truly  say  that  whatever  of  aid  I  have 
been  able  to  render  to  the  cause  of  the  Master,  I 
owe,  under  God,  to  Oberlin. 


RE-UNION    OF   ALUMNA. 

First  Church,  Monday,  July  2d,  2  p.m. 


ADDRESS    OF    WELCOME. 

BY  MRS.  A.  A.  F.  JOHNSTON. 
'56,  Literary. 

Daughters  of  Oberlin,  you  do  not  need  a  for- 
mal welcome — you  have  already  found  not  only  our 
latch-string  out,  but  our  front  door  wide  open  to 
receive  you.  It  is  not  the  college,  it  is  not  the 
faculty,  it  is  not  the  citizens  that  individually  wel- 
come you;  it  is  all  these  together;  it  is  Oberhn 
herself  that  has  called  you  home.  For  months 
there  have  been  glad  notes  of  preparation,  until  at 
last  every  leaf  in  our  shady  walks  has  quivered 
with  the  words,  They  are  coming ;  and  now  that 
you  are  here  there  is  a  sweet  content  in  all  our 
hearts. 

As  we  have  made  ready  for  you,  we  have  thought 
of  most  of  those  whom  you  would  miss.  Do  you 
know  that  often  when  I  see  our  students  assembled, 
1  fall  to  pitying  them,  because  they  will  never  hear 
him  preach  whose  eloquence  to  us  that  heard  him 
has  made  all  other  eloquence  seem  tame.  They 
will  never  tremble  beneath  his  convincing  logic, 
nor  listen  spell-bound  to  his  flights  of  imagination. 
They  will  never  hear  him  toll  the  bell  of  eternity, 
nor  see  him  cast  a  great  ship  helplessly  upon  the 
rocks. 

Do  you  remember  when  he  defined  humility  for 


ADDRESS   OF    WELCOME.  T43 

US?  I  do  not  recall  his  text,  but  his  theme  was 
humility.  He  had  told  us  what  it  was  not,  and  then 
he  attempted  to  tell  us  what  it  was.  He  said: 
*' Humility  is  " — and  then  followed  his  definition  ; 
but  in  the  midst  he  stopped,  looked  disappointed, 
and  said,  "no,  that  is  not  it,"  and  he  began  again. 
The  second  time  he  stopped,  thrust  out  his  hand 
as  if  grasping  the  definition,  and  threw  it  behind 
him.  The  third  effort  was  not  satisfactory.  He 
looked  up  into  the  great  gallery  and  then  down  upon 
the  pews.  ''  Brethren,"  he  said,  *'  I  cannot  put  it 
into  words,  but  this  is  it" — and  he  kneeled  down, 
clasped  his  hands  in  a  supplicating  manner,  half 
raised  his  eyes  to  heaven,  and  let  them  fall.  In 
this  position  he  remained  for  a  moment  amid  a 
most  profound  silence ;  then  slowly  rising  to  his 
feet,  he  went  on  with  his  discourse.  The  strangest 
thing  about  it  Avas,  we  never  thought  it  strange. 

As  a  student,  sitting  in  these  galleries,  he  often 
seemed  to  me  like  Jupiter  hurling  his  thunder- 
bolts ;  but  as  I  knew  him  in  the  later  years  of  his 
life,  ripened  by  age  and  mellowed  into  perfection, 
I  always  thought  of  him  as  the  beloved  disciple. 
But  you  assembled  to-day  will  miss  most  the  sil- 
ver hair,  the  sweet  face,  the  kindly  greeting  of  one 
at  whose  feet  so  many  of  us  sat  to  learn  wisdom. 
Mrs.  Dascomb  resigned  her  position  as  Principal 
of  the  Ladies'  Department  in  '70,  but  she  did  not 
retire  to  the  quiet  of  her  home.  Indeed,  it  seemed 
to  some  of  us  that  she  then  entered  upon  the  most 
active  part  of  her  life.  She  was  made  President 
of  our  Ladies*  Board  of  Managers  in  the  college. 


144  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

and  until  her  last  illness  was  always  present  at  its 
meetings.  She  was  President  of  our  Foreign  Mis- 
sionary Society,  and  we  never  needed  a  delegate 
to  the  State  or  national  meetings  that  we  did  not 
first  think  of  her.  She  was  President  of  our  Tem- 
perance Society,  and  in  the  long  struggle  which 
w^e  have  had,  I  doubt  if  there  has  been  any  one 
whom  the  would-be  saloonists  so  dreaded  to  meet. 
It  made  them  realize  how  mean  they  were  when 
they  found  themselves  obliged  to  systematically 
oppose  so  good,  so  sweet,  and  so  motherly  a 
woman.  It  must  have  been  with  some  degree  of 
confidence  that  she  passed  the  pearly  gate ;  for 
surely  she  could  say,  '^  I  have  fought  a  good  fight, 
I  have  kept  the  faith." 

There  are  others  whose  familiar  faces  you 
will  miss  ;  but  the  Oberhn  work  goes  on.  It  does 
not  depend  upon  any  man  or  any  woman — 
upon  any  men  or  any  women.  We  often  hear 
Oberhn  praised,  because  she,  of  all  colleges, 
first  opened  her  doors  to  women  ;  but  if  she  had 
not  done  so  some  other  college  would.  It  was 
the  logic  of  events  that  brought  it — the  progress  of 
a  Christian  civilization.  The  higher  education  of 
women  was  foreshadowed  eighteen  centuries  ago. 
If  sin  came  into  the  world  by  the  way  of  Eve,  it  is 
a  comfort  to  know  that  salvation  came  by  the  way 
of  Mary.  When  she  became  the  Mother  of  Christ 
was  started  a  train  of  events  that  had  in  them  all 
things  that  were  for  woman's  highest  good  ;  and 
in  the  *'  all  things"  was  included  her  highest  mental 
development. 


ADDRESS  OF   WELCOME. 


145 


Before  1833  women  had  been  fed,  sometimes 
bountifully  it  is  true,  with  the  crumbs  that  fell 
from  the  rich  mans  table ;  it  is  to  the  honor  of 
Oberlin  that  she  was  found  worthy  to  open  wide 
the  portals  of  the  temple  of  knowledge  and  invite 
women  to  the  banqueting  board.  But  I  was  asked 
to  welcome  you,  you  see.  1  cannot  come  to  it  be- 
cause there  are  so  many  things  1  want  to  talk 
about;  besides,  if  the  truth  must  be  told,  I  do  not 
know  how.  I  was  never  present  at  a  semi-centen- 
nial before. 

1  began  with  fne  latch-string,  I  think  1  will  end 
with  a  homely  saying  which  I  used  to  hear  in  my 
childhood  ;  for  my  home  was  on  the  frontier,  in  the 
great  woods  of  Ohio.  To  me  there  was  the  hospi- 
tality of  the  wide  hearth,  and  the  warmth  of  the 
roaring  chimney  in  the  words — ''  Our  folks  are  real 
glad  to  see  you." 


OBERLIN  AND  THE  EDUCATION  OF 
WOMEN, 

BY   MRS.   SARAH   C.   LITTLE,  '59, 
Janesville,  Wis. 

When,  in  1833,  the  foundations  of  Oberlin  Col- 
lege were  laid  "  according  to  the  pattern  shown  in 
the  mount,"  there  was  no  school  west  of  the  Hud- 
son, and  but  few  east  of  it,  in  which  young  women 
could  attain  an  education  better  than  that  afforded 
by  the  common  schools.  Both  Church  and  State 
had  long  recognized  the  need  of  scholastic  training 
for  young  men,  and  numerous  colleges  had  been 
founded  for  them ;  but  that  young  ladies  either 
needed  or  desired  any  other  than  ornamental  ac- 
complishment was  a  comparatively  new  idea.  In 
New  England,  Joseph  Emerson  had  taken  the 
**  high  Christian  ground "  that  woman  was  in- 
tended to  be  **  neither  the  slave  nor  the  pet,  but 
the  companion  of  man ; "  and  that,  as  she  was  to 
be  the  principal  educator  of  the  race,  she  should 
be  prepared  to  do  this  work  well. 

Miss  Grant,  and  her  younger  associate  Miss 
Lyon,  had  appreciated  the  need  of  a  higher  culture 
for  women,  and  especially  of  a  better  training  for 
teachers,  and  were  beginning  to  urge  this  need 
upon   public  attention.     The   thought  of  Mount 


OBERLIN  AND    THE  EDUCATION  OF  WOMEN.    1 47 

Holyoke  had  been  conceived,  but  the  work  of 
establishing  the  seminary  upon  its  firm  foundation 
was  not  completed  until  several  years  later. 

It  was  reserved  for  Oberlin,  in  the  heart  of 
the  forest,  almost  at  the  western  limit  of  civil- 
ization, to  be  the  pioneer  in  this  work,  and  to 
first  provide  young  women  with  an  opportunity  to 
acquire  a  wide  and  deep  culture.  The  first  cir- 
cular issued  respecting  the  new  enterprise,  de- 
clared its  "grand  object"  to  be  the  '' diffusion  of 
useful  science,  sound  morality  and  pure  religion 
among  the  growing  multitudes  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley,"  and  named,  as  means  to  this  end,  "-  primar- 
ily, the  thorough  education  of  ministers  and  pious 
school-teachers ;  secondly,  the  elevation  of  wo- 
men; and  thirdly,  the  education  of  the  common 
people  with  the  higher  classes  in  such  a  manner  as 
suits  the  nature  of  republican  institutions."  It  was 
also  stated  that  the  young  ladies  would  receive  in- 
struction in  the  useful  branches  taught  in  the  best 
seminaries  for  women,  and  that  the  higher  classes 
would  enjoy  the  privilege  of  the  professorships  in 
the  Teachers',  Collegiate,  and  Theological  Depart- 
partments. 

In  what  is  apparently  a  memorandum  of  the 
first  address  given  to  the  young  ladies  by  Mrs. 
Alice  W.  Cowles,  who  was  appointed  Principal  of 
the  Ladies'  Department  in  1836,  this  passage 
occurs :  *'  Our  elder  sisters  were  taught  that  a 
woman's  education  was  completed  if  she  could 
guide  the  house  and  wield  the  shuttle  with  dex- 
terity.    Those  parents  who   wished  to  see  their 


14^  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

daughters  accomplished  ladies,  would  send  them 
to  a  boarding-school  for  one  or  two  terms,  where 
they  would  embroider  a  flower-basket,  paint  a 
coat-of-arms,  and  return  home  with  their  education 
finish:;d.  Happily  for  us,  a  different  state  of  things 
exists  at  the  present  time.  It  is  admitted  that  the 
fields  of  knowledge  lie  open  to  women,  and  those 
who  wish  may  enter  and  enrich  their  minds.  If 
we  look  at  the  different  stations  a  woman  is  de- 
signed to  fill,  we  shall  see  that  a  very  high  degree 
of  mental  improvement  and  all  the  various  graces 
of  the  heart  are  indispensable  to  that  complete- 
ness of  character  so  beautifully  delineated  in 
Proverbs." 

It  would  seem,  therefore,  that  this  innovation 
was  proposed,  not  because  it  was  thought  that  any 
radical  change  in  the  nature  and  responsibilities  of 
women  was  expected  or  wished,  but  because  a 
truer  appreciation  of  the  noble  and  dignified  na- 
ture of  their  responsibilities  and  duties  recognized 
the  need  of  disciplined  and  well-furnished  minds 
and  hearts. 

That  the  new  school  met  a  felt  want  is  evident. 
We  have  been  told  that  the  young  women  of  that 
day  as  "  they  cheerfully  denied  themselves  luxuries 
and  made  other  efforts  to  aid  their  brothers  in 
acquiring  a  liberal  education,  could  not  always 
refrain  from  sighing  and  saying  to  themselves,  as 
did  Mary  Lyon,  ''  Oh  !  there  is  no  college  for  girls 
to  go  to  !  "  But  now  that  a  door  was  opened  for 
them,  their  readiness  to  enter  it  was  certified  by 
the  presence  at  the  opening  of  the   school  of  a 


0 BERLIN  AND    THE  EDUCATION  OF  WOMEN.    1 49 

goodly  percentage  of  young  women,  earnest, 
serious,  intent  upon  making  the  most  of  the  powers 
with  which  they  had  been  endowed.  The  story 
told  by  Mrs.  Martha  Haskins  Pierce  in  the  May 
"Jubilee  Notes,"  of  her  brother's  hastening  to  her 
with  the  tidings  of  this  new  opening  for  acquiring 
an  education,  of  her  father's  reluctant  consent  that 
she  should  go  with  her  brother,  of  her  eagerness 
that  was  not  checked  by  those  who  told  her  of  the 
"  giants  in  the  land,"  of  her  courage  and  endurance 
as  she  met  the  hardships  of  the  way,  wading  the 
mud  in  her  brother's  boots,  could  be  duplicated 
by  many  another  brave-hearted  woman. 

New  as  was  the  thought  of  a  higher  education 
for  women,  the  idea  that  it  was  either  best  or  safe 
to  educate  them  in  the  same  schools  with  young 
men,  was  newer  still.  It  was  regarded  as  a 
**  hazardous  experiment  " — hazardous  to  both  the 
men  and  the  women.  In  the  earlier  documents  so 
little  is  said  in  reference  to  the  considerations 
which  led  to  opening  the  doors  of  the  college  wide 
enough  for  a  sister  to  enter  by  her  brother's  side, 
that  we  are  led  to  infer  that,  recognizing  the  fact 
that  God  had  given  the  girl  a  mind  worthy  of  cul- 
ture, and  had  laid  upon  her  the  obligation  of  using 
it  in  His  service,  it  was  confidently  expected  that 
He  would  give  His  aid  in  laying  the  right  plans, 
and  carrying  them  to  a  successful  issue. 

Doubtless  the  knowledge  of  the  large  interests 
at  stake  served  to  induce  caution,  but  unaided 
luiman  foresight  would  not  have  been  always  so 
wise.  Certainly  no  other  theory  than  that  of  a  guid- 


I  50  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

ing  Providence  can  account  for  the  safe  and  fruitful 
results  of  this  ''  hazardous  experiment." 

While  young  women  have,  from  the  beginning, 
recited  in  the  same  classes  with  young  men,  it 
seems  not  to  have  been  anticipated  that  they  would 
desire  a  full  college  course  ;  but  when  the  desire 
was  expressed  their  wish  was  cheerfully  granted. 
In  1 841,  three  ladies  were  graduated  from  the  full 
classical  course,  being  the  first  ladies  in  the  world 
to  receive  a  literary  degree  from  any  college. 
Two  of  them,  Mrs.  Carohne  Rudd  Allen,  wife  of 
Prof.  George  N.  Allen,  and  Mrs.  Mary  Hosford 
Fisher,  wife  of  Rev.  Caleb  E.  Fisher,  after  busy 
lives  of  usefulness  and  honor,  are,  I  suppose,  in 
Oberlin  to-day,  having  outlived  their  husbands, 
but  happy  in  the  strong  health  and  high  culture  of 
their  children,  and  the  growing  promise  of  their 
grandchildren,  who  have  in  no  wise  deteriorated 
from  the  parent  stock. 

For  reasons  inscrutable  to  the  young  Avomen 
pursuing  the  classical  course  in  the  *'  middle 
period,"  it  had  not  yet  been  deemed  proper  to 
allow  them  to  read  their  own  essays  on  any  public 
occasions,  the  rule  applying  to  Monthly  Rhetori- 
cals  as  well  as  to  Commencement  exercises.  We 
were  told  that  ''  consistency  was  a  jewel,"  and  that 
it  was  *'  inconsistent "  for  3^oung  ladies  to  read 
their  essays  on  the  same  day  that  the  young  men 
delivered  their  orations,  and  when  the  exercise 
was  presided  over  by  a  man.  But,  oh!  how  very 
juvenile  the  average  girl's  essay  sounded  when 
read  in  his  best  style  by  Professor  Monroe  !    Class 


OBERLIN  AND    THE  EDUCATION  OF  WOMEN.    151 

after  class  petitioned  for  what  thej  thought  to  be 
a  proper  privilege,  and  were  denied.  There 
seemed  to  be  a  haunting  fear  that  the  young 
women  who  preferred  to  read  their  own  essays 
were  in  danger  of  bringing  *'  reproach"  upon  them- 
selves or  the  college.  But  at  last,  after  denying 
the  request  of  a  quiet,  modest,  conservative  Quaker 
girl,  the  only  lady  of  her  class  (Mrs.  Mary  Raley 
Cravath,  of  '58),  who  manifested  as  earnest  a  wish 
for  the  coveted  privilege  as  the  most  ''strong- 
minded"  of  all,  permission  was  given,  and  during 
the  following  year  the  young  women  responded  to 
their  own  names  at  the  Monthly  Rhetoricals,  and, 
in  1859,  th^  fiv^  ^\iO  graduated  from  the  classical 
course  read  their  own  essays. 

This  is  not  the  place,  nor  the  time,  to  discuss  the 
subject  of  co-education  ;  but,  perhaps,  it  is  proper 
to  consider  very  briefly  how  well  th«  result  of  fifty 
years*  experience  here  has  justified  the  hopes  of  its 
friends,  or  the  forebodings  of  its  enemies. 

Have  young  women  proved  intellectually  cap- 
able for  the  work  assigned  them  ?  President  Fair- 
child  has  said,  ''  Where  there  has  been  the  same 
preparatory  training,  we  find  no  difference  in 
ability  to  maintain  themselves  in  the  recitation- 
room."  The  eminent  fitness  for  their  work  of 
Miss  Eugenia  Morgan,  Professor  of  Mental  Science 
and  Moral  Philosophy  in  Wellesley  College ;  Miss 
Helen  Shafer,  Professor  of  Mathematics  in  the 
same  college ;  Miss  Ruth  Hoppin,  of  Smith  Col- 
lege, and  scores  of  others  to-day  occupying  re- 
sponsible positions   in  our  higher  institutions  of 


1 5 2  0 BERLIN  JUBILEE. 

learning,  abundantly  corroborates  this  state- 
ment. 

Have  they  been  physically  able  to  endure  close 
study?  Statistics,  and  the  amount  of  work  per- 
formed in  many  a  family,  school  and  community 
by  Oberlin  women,  disprove  thoroughly  the  prev- 
alent notion  that,  although  they  may  live  through 
and  graduate,  girls  who  attempt  a  college  course 
are  in  serious  danger  of  permanent  invalidism. 
You  may  see  with  us  to-day  many  representatives 
of  the  early  classes,  who,  after  bringing  up  large 
families  and  enduring  pioneer  hardships,  still 
maintain,  as  they  near  "  three-score  years  and  ten," 
full  vigor  of  mind  and  body. 

Are  the  young  women  rendered  unfit  or  unwil- 
ling to  assume  the  precious  responsibilities  of  home  ? 
The  number  of  names  of  ladies  that  are  followed 
by  another  name  in  significant  italics  in  the  Semi- 
centennial Register  shows  that  the  education  ac- 
quired here  has  not  been  of  the  sort  to  weaken 
their  confidence  in  the  Divine  declaration  that  "  it 
is  not  good  for  man  to  be  alone,"  nor  to  remove  from 
their  minds  the  **  benevolent  intention"  to  regard 
the  "  good  of  man,"  not  to  unfit  them  to  be  helps- 
meet  for  man.  And  if  some  have  chosen,  or  have 
been  providentially  called  to  bear  life's  burdens 
alone,  have  they  not,  as  a  rule,  proved  capable, 
efficient  servants  of  God  and  their  fellow-men? 

Have  either  the  young  men  or  the  young  women 
deteriorated  in  character  ?  Again  the  answer  is  an 
emphatic  "  no."  And  why  should  they  ?  We  sow 
oats  and  wheat  side  by  side,  in  soil  ploughed  and  har- 


OBERLIN  AND    THE  EDUCATION  OF  WOMEN.    153 

rowed  alike,  watered  by  the  same  rain  and  warmed 
by  the  same  sun,  trusting  confidently  in  the  ability 
of  the  seed  and  growing  plants  to  appropriate  just 
the  nourishment  that  is  best  suited  to  the  develop- 
ment of  each,  with  never  a  fear  that  the  wheat  may 
endeavor  to  imitate  the  oats,  or  that  the  oats  may 
emulate  the  wheat  and  strive  to  form  compact 
heads  of  bearded  grain  instead  of  its  own  graceful 
panicles. 

Eastern  people  have  not  yet  laid  aside  all 
anxiety  as  to  this  system ;  but  in  the  west,  while 
there  are  a  few  separate  schools,  the  accepted  con- 
clusion is  that  it  is  safe  to  trust  in  a  large  degree 
to  the  native  instincts  of  propriet}^ ;  hence  we  have 
not  only  colleges  on  essentially  the  Oberlin  plan 
by  the  score  all  through  the  West,  but  also  State 
universities  and  normal  schools  in  which  there  is 
much  less  supervision  of  the  habits  of  either  young 
men  or  young  women,  and  individuals  are  left  to 
follow,  in  the  main,  their  own  choice  as  to  social 
life.  Unquestionably  this  lack  of  supervision  en- 
tails serious  loss  on  the  formation  of  character,  and 
sometimes  interferes  with  the  best  attainments  in 
scholarship ;  but  no  one  anticipates  or  finds  such 
dire  evils  resulting  as  were  formerly  believed  in- 
separable from  co-education,  however  conducted. 

Oberlin  has  been  blessed  in  a  wonderful  degree 
in  those  who  earliest  and  longest  have  been 
charged  with  this  duty  of  supervising  the  young 
women.  First,  Mrs.  Dascomb  gave  this  work  one 
year  in  the  prime  of  her  early  womanhood.  Then 
came  Mrs.  Cowles,  for  whom,  after  a  few  years, 


1 54  0 BERLIN  JUBILEE. 

the  burden  became  too  heavy,  and  who  has  for 
forty  years  looked  upon  the  fruitage  of  that  early 
planting-  from  the  standpoint  of  the  heavenly 
heights.  Of  the  characteristics  which  fitted  her 
for  the  work  one  connected  with  the  college  at 
that  time,  writes  to  me  as  follows :  ''  Besides  her 
experience  in  Connecticut  district  schools,  she  had 
been  at  Wethersfield  under  that  pioneer,  Joseph 
Emerson,  but,  more  than  all,  she  was  fitted  for  her 
new  and  untried  post  by  her  remarkable  calmness, 
wisdom,  suavity,  and  purity.  By  the  presence  of 
these  eminent  and  indispensable  qualities  she 
might  be  fairly  regarded  as  well  fitted  for  her  post ; 
but  this  is  not  all.  There  was  what  I  might  call  a 
negative  fitness  ;  there  was  nothing  that  hindered. 
She  did  not  obtrude  herself,  she  did  not  seek  to 
build  up  her  own  consequence,  she  was  not  fitful, 
she  was  not  passionate,  she  was  not  neglectful  of 
any.  She  had  the  qualities  that  fitted  her,  and  was 
free  from  the  qualities  that  would  have  unfitted  her 
for  her  w^ork.  She  would  commonly  have  been 
said  to  have  excelled  in  administrativeness ;  but  I 
bave  chosen  to  explain  how  well  the  epithet  ap- 
plies to  her,  and  I  think  my  own  judgment  must 
correspond  with  that  of  the  early  members  of  the 
faculty  and  with  that  of  the  Oberlin  community." 

Mrs.  Dascomb  must  have  been  known  and  her 
inflUiCnce — at  least  that  of  her  beneficent  presence — 
felt  in  some  degree  by  every  young  woman  here 
from  the  beginning,  until  her  death  four  years  ago, 
a  period  of  forty -five  years. 

A  rare  and  true  woman,  who  could,  after  the  age 


OBERLIN  AND    THE  EDUCATION  OF  WOMEN.   1 55 

of  forty,  keep  her  sympathies  with  young  people 
warm  and  active ;  who  could,  until  sixty,  keep 
pace  with  the  advancement  of  a  college  of  such 
marvellous  growth  as  Oberlin  has  had,  enlarging 
her  ideas  with  its  enlargement,  who  could  be  firm 
without  harshness,  prompt  without  haste,  cautious 
without  timidity,  conservative  in  a  good  sense  of 
the  word,  while  acting  constantly  on  ideas  con- 
sidered as  dangerously  radical  by  the  prevailing 
opinion,  and  with  all  her  strength  of  character 
maintaining  the  grace  and  sweetness  of  the  highest 
type  of  a  lady.  Such  was  Mrs.  Dascomb,  and  such 
the  personal  influence  under  which  the  ideals  of 
the  young  women  of  this  college  for  nearly  half  a 
century  were  moulded  into  strength  and  womanly 
beauty  and  grace. 

Recalling,  as  we  all  can,  the  sweet  calm  peace 
that  uniformly  rested  upon  her  face,  can  we  not 
read  there  the  secret  of  it  all  ?  She  had  "  com- 
mitted her  way  unto  the  Lord,  and  trusted  also  in 
Him,  that  He  should  bring  it  to  pass." 

While  Oberlin  has  not  labored  alone,  she  has 
had  a  large  share  in  producing  the  great  changes 
which  the  last  fifty  years  have  wrought  in  public 
opinion  respecting  the  capacities  of  women  and 
the  nature  and  amount  of  the  best  education  for 
them.  She  has  been  not  only  the  pioneer,  but 
constantly  a  powerful  agent,  increasing  her  in- 
fluence as  the  years  have  multiplied  the  number 
who  have  felt  the  impulse  of  her  principles  and 
example. 

Woman  are  now  recognized  as  intellectual  and 


156  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

moral  factors  in  society,  and  their  aid  is  confidently 
sought  in  carrying  on  the  benevolent  work  of  the 
world.  No  serious  obstacle  stands  in  the  way  of 
their  entering  any  field  of  usefulness  for  which 
they  are  qualified.  As  temperance  workers,  as 
foreign  missionaries,  as  laborers  among  the  ''  de- 
spised races"  in  our  own  land,  as  physicians  in 
reformatory  institutions,  on  State  Boards  of  Char- 
ities, and  in  all  grades  of  educational  work,  from 
the  Kindergarten  to  the  University,  women  are 
found,  faithfully  doing  work  for  the  Master.  In 
their  Boards  of  Foreign  Missions  they  have  shown 
such  capacity,  zeal,  and  endurance,  that  our  other 
societies  desire  to  utilize  the  immense  reserve  force 
that  still  remains  unused  among  the  women  of  the 
churches,  and  they  will  not  be  disappointed. 

The  record  of  Oberlin's  first  half-century  is 
closed,  and  we  have  in  our  hands  the  history  of 
those  years,  written  by  the  only  adequate  pen. 
The  fair  white  page  of  the  future  is  before  us — 
what  shall  there  be  written?  The  coming  years 
will  soon  bring  a  necessity  for  enlarged  accommo- 
dations for  the  young  women.  The  new  society 
building  will  provide  for  their  immediate  wants. 
But  certainly  by  the  time  Tappan  Hall  has  been 
replaced,  an  enlargement  of  the  present  one,  or  a 
new  ladies'  hall,  will  be  an  imperative  necessity. 
Before  that  time  the  Conservatory  of  Music,  which 
has  been  such  a  refining  and  educating  force  for 
both  the  young  women  and  the  young  men,  will 
have  been  established  in  its  new  building,  and,  let 
us  hope,  have  a  permanent  endowment. 


OBERLIiV  AND    THE  EDUCATION   OF  WOMEN.    157 

With  that  spirit  of  fairness  and  truth  which  has 
always  characterized  her,  Oberhn  has  reserved  her 
academic  degrees  for  those  who  have  earned  them 
by  completing  that  course  of  study  which  is  co- 
ordinate with  those  of  other  colleges  of  high  grade. 
With  her  greatly  increased  numbers  and  larger 
facilities  she  probably  must  soon  add  new  courses 
of  study  which  shall  give  ampler  freedom  to  indi- 
vidual taste  and  ability ;  and  new  degrees  which 
shall  accurately  measure  the  quality  and  quantity 
of  the  work  will  then  be  required. 

Oberlin  was  long  counted  peculiar — yes,  and 
she  was  "  peculiar,"  and  in  this  was  her  glory  and 
her  power.  She  was  ''  peculiar "  in  her  anti- 
slavery  opinions,  "peculiar"  in  her  temperance 
principles,  ''  peculiar "  in  her  theology  and  phi- 
losophy, ''peculiar"  in  giving  young  women  an 
equal  chance  with  their  brothers.  She  is  no 
longer  very  peculiar  in  any  of  these  ways,  not  be- 
cause she  has  changed,  but  so  much  of  the  best 
thought  of  the  world  has  come  into  sympathy  with 
her  way  of  thinking  and  doing  as  to  remove  much 
of  the  singularity.  But  there  are  still  ethical 
problems  in  the  working  out  of  the  fundamental 
principle  of  her  philosophy,  ''  the  greatest  good  of 
the  greatest  number,"  which,  if  faithfully  and 
bravely  solved,  will  still  render  her  liable  to  the 
epithet  ''  peculiar." 

Let  Oberlin  be  still  and  for  ever  known  as  the 
school  where  the  "  common  people  may  be  educated 
with  the  high  classes  in  such  a  manner  as  suits  the 
nature   of    Republican    institutions;"    where    the 


1 5  8  OB E RUN  J  UBILEE. 

spirit  of  caste,  so  utterly  foreign  from  the  spirit  of 
Christ,  shall  not  dare  to  manifest  itself;  where 
neither  young  men  nor  young  women  shall  be 
valued  by  the  size  of  their  balance  at  the  bank,  or 
the  beauty  or  cost  of  their  raiment ;  where  both 
the  necessary  and  voluntary  expenses  of  college 
life  shall  be  kept  within  such  limits  as  shall  enable 
the  '^  common  people,"  the  sturdy  3^eomanry  of  the 
land,  the  bone  and  sinew  of  the  nation,  to  avail 
themselves  of  its  advantages  ;  where  simple  living 
for  God  shall  be  taught  by  precept  and  example ; 
and  where  the  ambition  for  fine  scholarship  and 
high  culture  shall  be  awakened,  not  by  the  desire 
to  excel  one's  classmates,  but  rather  by  the  worth- 
ier motive,  to  be  qualified  for  fulfilling  life's  highest 
duties. 

As  a  family  of  children  might  count  themselves 
richer  in  inheriting  from  their  parents  a  genius  for 
work  and  a  passion  for  self-sacrificing  and  generous 
giving  and  doing  for  the  "  good  of  being,"  than  if 
miUions  had  been  bequeathed  to  them,  so  the 
Oberlin  children  may  count  themselves  rich  in 
that  they  have  inherited  the  spirit  of  faithful  ser- 
vice and  sacrifice  that  inspired  the  Oberlin  fathers. 
May  they  continue  to  make  good  use  of  their 
inheritance,  and  living  lives  *'  hid  with  Christ  in 
God,"  be  filled  with  the  power  of  godliness. 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  EARLY  OBERLIN 
DAYS. 

BY  MRS.  DOUGLASS   PUTNAM,  '39,  LIT.; 
Harmar,  Ohio. 

Forbidden  by  husband  and  physician  to  take 
active  part  in  these  interesting  exercises,  I  can 
only  sandwich  a  few  recollections  of  my  early 
days  here  between  the  well-prepared  offerings  of 
the  occasion. 

I  came  to  Oberlin  from  Massachusetts  in  1833^ 
arriving  in  November,  a  few  weeks  before  the 
opening  of  the  school.  I  was  fifteen  years  old,  and 
came  at  the  invitation  of  my  much  loved  and 
honored  Uncle  and  Aunt  Stewart,  whom  I  had  not 
seen  since  their  return  from  their  mission  work 
among  the  Choctaws. 

1  landed  in  Cleveland  late  one  evening,  where 
my  escorts  left  me,  and  took  stage  for  Elyria  long 
before  light  next  morning.  It  was  a  cold,  dark,  and 
cheerless  morning,  and  every  seat  inside  the  stage 
was  filled  by  men — not  a  single  woman's  face  or 
voice  there.  I  took  the  vacant  place  made  for  me 
between  two  men  whose  faces  I  could  not  see,  and 
rode  in  silence,  but  with  a  trembling  heart,  heartily 
wishing  I  had  never  left  my  mother,  till  we  were 
requested  by  the  driver  to  dismount,  as  we  had 
reached  a  steep  and  dangerous  place,  and   must 


l60  0 BERLIN  JUBILEE. 

walk  quite  a  distance.  When  we  reached  the  little 
inn  where  we  were  to  resume  our  seats,  I  found 
the  gentlemen  with  whom  I  had  been  seated  (and 
who  had  kindly  helped  me  over  the  difficult  walk 
in  the  darkness)  to  be  Oberlin  men— one  Mr.  O.  D. 
Hibbard,  the  other  George  L.  Hovey.  They  had 
been  into  Cleveland  on  some  business  for  Mr. 
Stewart  or  Mr.  Shipherd.  My  heart  and  spirits  at 
once  revived,  and  Oberlin  ceased  to  be  a  myth. 
Arriving  at  Elyria,  I  took  a  lumber  wagon  next  morn- 
ing for  Oberlin.  It  took  us  from  soon  after  break- 
fast till  tea-time  to  reach  Oberlin,  eight  miles.  Our 
way  through  the  woods  was  around  stumps,  fallen 
trees,  and  through  mud  holes  so  deep,  and  so  much 
swamp,  that  it  seemed  as  if  we  inust  go  under  the 
mud  and  water,  and  disappear  from  sight. 

I  found  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Stewart,  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Pease,  and  some  others  whose  names  do  not  occur 
to  me,  occupying  the  only  framed  house  in  Oberlin, 
called  afterwards,  I  think,  Colonial  Hall.  There 
were  a  few  students  there,  gathered  from  the  East 
by  Mr.  Shipherd  ;  among  them  the  two  with  whom 
I  had  travelled  from  Cleveland,  the  latter  of  whom 
is  among  us  to-day  after  many  years  of  foreign 
work.  Only  the  outside  doors  to  this  building 
were  completed,  and  much  remained  to  be  done 
before  the  school  opened  or  its  inmates  made  very 
comfortable.  Quilts  and  blankets  served  as  doors 
between  apartments.  We  all  slept  for  a  little 
while  in  the  rooms  designed  for  the  sitting-room 
and  Mrs.  Stewart's  bedroom.  Blankets  and  quilts 
were  spread  on  the  floors,  the  ladies  all  retired, 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  EARLY  O BERLIN  DAYS,    l6l 

improvised  curtains  were  put  up,  light  extinguished, 
and  the  rest  took  their  hard  and  humble  beds,  to 
vacate  them  before  the  dawn.  When  we  got  into 
our  regular  rooms  we  felt  as  if  we  were  in  palatial 
quarters,  though  we  had  so  little  room,  with  two 
beds  in  each  room,  that  we  had  to  turn  our  bed- 
steads  up  against  the  wall  in  the  day-time,  and  we 
wrote  all  our  first  letters  home  sitting  on  the  floor, 
with  paper  and  ink  on  a  chair.  Postage  to  New 
England  in  those  days  was  twenty-five  cents,  and 
was  estimated  according  to  the  number  of  sheets 
of  paper  and  not  by  weight.  We  used  the  mammoth 
sheets,  and  entered  every  item  of  novelty,  and  all 
the  passing  occurrences  of  each  day,  and  the  various 
items  of  our  new  experiences.  If  some  of  those 
old  letters  could  be  resurrected,  no  doubt  many 
items  of  the  history  of  those  da)^s  would  prove  of 
interest,  and  revive  recollections  that  have  passed 
from  the  memories  of  the  few  survivors  of  those 
earliest  student  days. 

In  the  basement  of  this  first  Hall  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Shipherd  were  living  then,  and,  with  only  two  rooms 
and  several  little  children,  had  I  think  some  board- 
ers, who  sat  at  their  table  at  least.  We  had  eaten 
our  frugal  meals  in  the  little  sitting-room,  our  first 
business  in  the  morning  being  to  clear  it  up  and  air 
it,  after  its  night's  use.  When  we  got  into  our  regu- 
lar dining-room  it  seemed  as  if  the  room  was  un- 
limited. We  who  had  no  cares,  and  were  full  of 
the  enthusiasm  of  youth,  found  novelty  and  amuse- 
ment in  these  new  phases  of  life,  and  our  very  plain 
fare  was  spiced  with   all  manner  of  funny  and  in- 


1 62  O BERLIN  JUBILEE. 

teresting  things.  We  also  learned  some  valuable 
lessons  for  future  life  from  these  experiences.  I 
am  sure  that  /  have  always  been  better  able  to 
**  make  things  do,"  and  to  get  along  with  inconveni- 
encies,  and  adapt  myself  to  all  sorts  of  circumstances 
for  that  early  experience. 

Soon  after  getting  into  our  new  dining-room  we 
commenced  reciting  each  a  passage  of  Scripture  at 
our  meals.  After  a  while  this  became  a  medium 
for  conveying  private  hints  and  giving  sharp  hits. 
As  an  example  :  there  was  seated  at  the  table  with 
our  teacher,  Mr.  Waldo,  a  gentleman  of  more  ad- 
vanced culture  than  the  students  there.  I  think  he 
acted  as  assistant  teacher  for  a  while.  Mr.  Waldo, 
by  the  way,  was  an  earnest  advocate  of  classical 
stud}^  and  took  a  warm  part  in  the  discussions  on 
that  subject  that  came  up  early  in  the  history  of 
Oberlin.  Mr.  Waldo  frequently  conversed  with 
this  gentleman  in  some  foreign  language,  much  to 
the  annoyance  of  others  at  table  who  could  not 
understand  them.  After  one  of  these  conversa- 
tions, a  young  lady  near  them  repeated,  with  some 
spice  of  manner,  "■  He  that  speaketh  in  an  unknown 
tongue  edifieth  himself,  but  he  that  prophesieth 
edifies  others."  The  gentlemen  turned  at  once 
and  asked  if  they  were  hinted  at,  when  a  student 
quickly  replied,  '*  He  that  hath  ears  to  hear,  let 
him  hear.''  The  water  at  Oberlin  at  that  time  was 
far  from  palatable.  Strongly  impregnated  with 
sulphur,  its  attractiveness  was  not  increased  by 
the  pewter  tumblers  from  which  we  drank.  E.  H. 
Fairchild  (now   President  of  Berea  College)  was 


RECOLLECTIONS   OF  EARLY  OBERLIN  DAYS.    1 63 

my  vis-h-vis  at  table,  and  one  day,  seeing,  I  pre- 
sume, my  look  of  disgust  as  I  put  my  tumbler  to 
my  lips,  repeated  with  great  gravity,  holding  up 
his  own  tumbler  and  eying  it  attentively,  *'  He  that 
drinketh  oithis  water  shall  thirst  again."  We  had 
good  English  in  conversation  for  our  table  talk 
after  the  first  incident,  but  the  bad  water  con- 
tinued to  the  end.  This  practice  had  its  evils,  and 
was  discontinued. 

The  first  sermon  that  I  heard  preached  in  our  new 
schoolroom  (which  was  the  room  over  the  dining- 
room,  and  served  as  chapel  also)  was  by  Mr. 
Scovil  or  Mr.  Waldo— 1  do  not  recollect  which. 
The  text  was  from  Isa.  liv.  2  :  "  Spare  not,  lengthen 
thy  cords,  and  strengthen  thy  stakes." 

I  might  speak  of  those  teachers  of  early  times. 
They  left  a  lasting  impress  upon  our  minds.  We 
have  never  forgotten  them  or  their  teachings.  I 
was  here  when  Mrs.  Dascomb  arrived.  All  that 
has  been  said  in  her  honor  I  can  mostly  fully  en- 
dorse. She  was  a  power  upon  the  habits  and 
characters  of  those  young  girls.  When  she  was 
sick  at  one  time,  we  girls  came  near  to  quarrels  as 
to  which  of  us  should  sit  by  her  and  wait  on  her 
while  Dr.  Dascomb  attended  to  his  duties.  Later, 
Mrs.  Cowles  had  a  most  decided  and  happy  influ- 
ence over  us  all.  When  Messrs.  Mahan  and  Finney 
arrived  we  were  awakened,  stimulated,  and  in- 
structed on  subjects  far  beyond  what  occupies  the 
minds  of  the  girls  of  the  present  day.  To  some  of 
us,  the  question  as  to  what  is  a  ''^ great  ftindamenial 
principle!'  even  at  this  late  day',  brings   back  Mr. 


1 64  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

Finney *s earnest  voice  and  eagle  eye.  To  us  in  our 
isolated  little  world  these  men  seemed  like  ''the 
gods  come  down  to  us."  I  can  truly  testify  that, 
however  much  we  lacked  in  our  studies  the 
systematic  drill  of  later  years,  and  however  desul- 
tory our  habits  of  study,  the  influences  of  those 
days  upon  character  were  beyond  computation  in 
their  value.  If  I  for  one  have  ever  been  able  to 
turn  aside  from  my  own  cares  and  burthens,  and 
gladly  take  up  those  of  others ;  if  I  have  ever  been 
able  to  regard  "  the  highest  good  of  the  greatest 
number,"  or  to  think  and  act  benevolently  for 
others  in  little  things — I  owe  it  largely  to  the  teach- 
ings and  examples  of  the  noble  men  and  women 
who,  in  Oberlin's  earlier  days,  never  let  us  know 
that  they  had  ?iny  interests  of  their  own,  aside  from 
doing  the  best  they  were  capable  of  for  others  and 
for  the  work  they  had  undertaken.  Mrs.  Stewart, 
Shipherd,  Dascomb,  Cowles,  and  the  true  and  noble 
women  of  the  Colony,  who  were  both  influence  and 
example  to  us,  and  from  whom  we  all  received  so 
much  of  motherly  kindness, — Mrs.  Pease,  Hamil- 
ton, Turner,  Ingersoll,  and  others, — they  all  left 
their  impressions  on  us,  and  helped  to  educate  us. 
Intellectually,  we  of  those  earlier  times  might  have 
been  better  drilled  and  equipped  women  had  we 
studied  elsewhere  than  at  Oberlin,  but  we  doubt- 
less gained  more  than  a  compensation  in  matters 
of  lasting  value  to  character  and  destiny. 

Most  of  that  first  class  of  girls,  then  in  the  first 
opening  of  womanhood,  went  out  to  meet  bravely 
the  cares  and   work  of  life,  and  rested  long  since 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  EARL  V  OBERLIN  DA  YS.    165 

from  its  toils  and  cares,  and  to-day  look  down  upon 
these  scenes  from  the  heavenly  heights.  They  all 
"sleep  in  Jesus."  Doubtless  they,  as  well  as  the 
few  of  us  who  remain,  will  ever  bless  God  for 
Oberlin,  and  Oberlin  influences. 


MIDWAY. 

By  Mrs.  Emily  Huntington  Miller,  '57,  Lit. 

St.  Paul,  Minn. 

White  angel  of  the  folded  wing 

And  eyes  of  twilight  ray, 
Unclasp  for  me  the  book  that  holds 

The  songs  of  yesterday. 

Unseal  thy  smiling  lips,  that  keep 

Their  secrets  all  untold  ; 
Breathe  for  my  longing  heart  the  spell 

That  bids  the  past  unfold. 

Once  more  for  me,  in  tender  tones. 

The  dear  old  tales  repeat; 
And  fill  the  silence  of  my  heart 

With  memory's  music  sweet. 

Lift  but  thine  hand,  and  all  the  skies 

Put  on  their  morning  glow; 
Along  untrodden  ways  once  more 

The  happy  pilgrims  go. 

O  hearts  that  feared  no  altar's  flame 

Or  costly  sacrifice. 
But  read  the  solemn  scroll  of  fate 

With  love's  anointed  eyes  ! — 

For  you  the  grand  heroic  past 

Her  glorious  records  read, 
And  set  her  cloud  of  witnesses, 

A  shining  host,  o'erhead. 

For  you  the  air  was  stirred  with  wings, 
And  thrilled  with  songs  divine  ; 


MIDWAY.  167 

Hope  showed  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth, 
And  whispered,  ''All  are  thine." 

There  was  no  crown  too  proud  to  wear, 

No  height  too  great  to  win  ; 
No  palace  fair  whose  gates  of  pearl 

Ye  might  not  enter  in. 

To-day,  while  memory  lifts  the  veil 

That  hides  the  vanished  years, 
The  sunny  picture  shows  but  dim 

Behind  a  mist  of  tears. 

I  see,  from  all  your  parted  ways, 

Your  weary  feet  return  ; 
Along  the  old  familiar  fields 

Again  your  camp-fires  burn. 

Old  watchwords  echo  on  the  air. 

Old  songs  are  sung  once  more. 
Old  comrades  clasp  a  greeting  hand 

And  tell  the  tales  of  yore. 

Graybeards  forget  their  frosty  rime; 

Pale  cheeks  have  caught  the  glow 
They  wore  in  youth's  sweet  blossom  time — 

The  rose  of  long  ago. 

And  when  to  some  familiar  name 

No  answering  voice  replies, 
Ye  do  but  say,  "  We  see  them  not; 

Dim  are  our  mortal  eyes." 

From  the  valley  at  your  feet. 

Where  the  rose  of  youth  was  sweet, 
Ye  have  climbed  a  little  way. 

Nearer  to  the  upper  day. 

Not  too  far  for  heart  to  hold, 

Backward  lies  the  morning's  gold  ; 
Not  too  far  for  faith  to  know 

Lies  the  country  where  ye  go. 


l68  OBERLIN  JUBILEE, 

Waiting,  for  a  little  space, 
In  a  quiet  resting-place, 

Count  your  treasures  lost  and  won 
Ere  again  ye  journey  on. 

These  are  lost,  the  comrades  true, 
Passing  on  beyond  our  view  ; 

Bravest,  sweetest  souls  of  all 
Answer  not  to  any  call. 

Near  at  hand  or  far  away, 

None,  who  love  them  best,  can  say 

For  the  fondest  human  speech 
To  their  silence  cannot  reach. 

Souls  whose  tender  trusting  grace 
Saw  the  Father  face  to  face, 

Smiling  went,  without  alarms. 
To  the  clasping  of  his  arms. 

Souls  that  questioned  earth  and  air 
For  the  love  that,  everywhere. 

Spite  of  unbelieving  doubt, 
All  their  being  shut  about. 

As  a  child  that  wakes  in  fear 
From  a  dream  of  danger  near, 

Sudden,  in  the  empty  space. 
Sees  the  tender  mother's  face ; 

So,  from  darkness  here  below. 
They  have  waked  to  see  and  know. 

Not  for  them  our  tears  be  shed: 
Drink  in  silence —  To  the  dead. 

Lost  the  rainbow,  arching  o'er 
All  the  sunny  skies  before, 

And  the  cloudy  castles  fair 
Busy  fancy  built  in  air  : 

Yet  from  loftier  heights  we  hear 
Bugle  echoes,  swelling  clear  ; 


MIDWAY.  169 

Closer  tQ  tTie  gates  of  light 
Pours  the  lark  h-er  full  delight. 

Sometimes,  on  a  tranquil  morn. 

Through  the  purple  distance  borne, 
Sounds  from  home  with  -deeper  thrill 

All  the  soletKn  silence  fill. 

Breezes  from  some  purer  day 

Sweep  the  shrouding  mists  away  ; 
Far  beyond  the  mountain  side 

Glorious  vistas  open  wide  ; 

Crystal  splendors,  breaking  through 

Wondrous  deeps  of  cloudless  blue, 
Tranced  with  bliss,  we  see  the  land, 

Fair  and  bright,  and  close  at  hand. 

Sometinaes,  dropping  down  the  way. 

Closer  shut  the  shadows  gray. 
Hiding  from  our  weary  sight 

Valley  green  and  gleaming  height. 

Groping  blindly,  not  a  voiee 

Through  the  darkness  calis,  Rejoice  I 
Yet  in  darkness  as  in  sun 

Clings  the  hand  th«it  leads  us  on. 

This  -s  gained — that,  day  by  day, 

As  the  blossoms  fall  away, 
Clearer  in  the  summer's  glow 

Hangs  the  ripening  fruit  below. 

Eager  hope  hath  grown  at  length 

Into  faith's  immortal  strength, 
Faith,  with  steadfast  courage  blent 

Wrought  a  fulness  of  content. 

More  and  more  we  learn  to  see, 

In  life's  change  and  mystery, 
God's  great  purpose,  working  still 

Good  from  every  seeming  ill ; 


170  0 BERLIN  JUBILEE. 

So  at  last  our  lives  may  stand 
Moulded  by  the  Master's  hand: 

Only  clay,  but  precious  still, 
Through  the  glorious  worker's  skilL 

Tempered  by  the  furnace  heat 
Till  for  heavenly  uses  meet, 

Only  clay,  they  yet  may  bear 
God's  great  name  imprinted  there. 


WHAT  OBERLIN  HAS  DONE  FOR  US. 

BY   MRS.    M.   C.   KINCAID,  '65, 

Spencerport.  N.  Y. 

Dear  sisters  of  the  Alumnae,  how  gladly  we 
come  together  to-day,  sisters  all,  though  to  some 
the  gray  hairs  have  come,  to  others  the  heat 
and  burden  of  the  day,  and  to  our  young  sisters, 
now  for  the  first  time  of  our  number,  the  hopes 
of  a  joyous,  happy  womanhood  !  We  come  gladly 
to  greet  each  other  round  the  knees  of  our  dear 
Alma  Mater;  and,  like  children  gathered  for  the 
thanksgiving  feast  in  the  old  homestead,  we  too 
will  talk  of  our  good  Mother  and  why  we  love  her 
so.  Mothers  are  loved  sometimes  simply  because 
they  are  the  mothers.  Because  they  love  us  we 
love  them,  and  with  it  all  we  sa}^  with  a  little  pity- 
ing sigh,  "  Poor  mother,  how  we  used  to  worry 
her  !  She  scarcely  knew  how  to  manage  us.  She 
let  us  have  our  own  way  far  too  much  in  the  old 
times.  She  was  foohshly  indulgent  to  us,  alas  !" 
But  our  Oberlin  Mother  has  been  a  wise  one.  She 
did  know  how  to  manage  us,  and  if  we  worried 
her  sometimes,  while  she  was  forbearing  she  was 
firm,  and  she  trained  us  well. 

I  have  a  secret ;  I  have  been  finding  it  out  all 
these  years  since  '65 :  All  children  do  not  love 
their  mothers    as    we    do    ours.      It     came   to    me 


172  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

first  as  a  surprise.  In  my  innocency  I  sup- 
posed that  to  have  graduated  at  a  school  was 
to  love  it  like  one's  self ;  but  it  is  not  always  so. 
Some  look  back  to»their  college  with  great  respect. 
It  gave  them  drill  and  intellectual  stimulus,  but 
that  was  all.  Others  say,  ''  What  fun  we  used  to 
have !"  and  recount  the  nonsense  and  the  frolics 
and  the  pranks,  and  laugh  at  their  teachers  and 
ridicule  their  weaknesses.  Others,  as  years  have 
taught  them  a  better  way,  speak  of  the  Alma 
Mater  as  anything  but  nourishing  and  kindly. 
**  The  school  did  me  harm :  it  were  better  that  I 
had  not  gone."  'Qwtour  MotJier\\?i^  done  more  than 
they  all.  She  has  performed  well  her  part  toward 
fitting  us  for  life — the  real  actual  life  of  the  day. 

I  sometimes  think  my  own  personal  experiences 
(which  are  in  order  to-day  perhaps)  help  me  to 
know  Oberlin  better  than  some  of  her  children. 
My  parents  were  among  the  earliest  students,  when 
to  be  of  it  was  to  suffer  with  it.  What  we  suffer 
for,  we  love.  So,  though  born  on  the  prairies  of 
the  West,  I  was  really  born  and  nourished  here. 
Whatever  Oberlin  loved  I  was  taught  to  love,  and 
what  she  thought  a  sin  I  thought  a  sin.  Her  pur- 
poses and  plans  became  mine,  and  she  was  ever 
the  Mecca  of  my  childhood.  So  when  in  '60  my 
hopes  were  realized  and  I  came,  it  was  both  to  the 
old  and  the  new  of  Oberlin.  The  teachers,  who  were 
my  father's  teachers  also,  were  still  here,  and  gave 
me  kindly  greeting  for  his  sake.  To  have  known 
President  Finney  and  Professors  Cowles  and 
Morgan  and  Dascomb,  was  the  privilege  of  a  life- 


WHAT  OBERLIN  HAS  DONE   FOR    US.         173 

time ;  and  to  have  as  teachers  those  who,  many  of 
them,  are  still  here,  could  only  be  second  to  it. 
Coming  back  seven  years  ago  as  pastor's  wife,  and 
knowing  Oberlin  as  it  is  to-day,  has  helped  me  to 
gather  up  old  experiences  and  impressions,  and  to 
know  that  we  love  our  Mother  because  we  have 
good  reason;  that  her  influence  upon  education, 
and  especially  upon  woman's  education,  has  been 
unique  and  all  pervasive;  that  she  has  done  for  her 
daughters  what  no  other  school  in  the  land  could 
do  for  hers. 

Her  greatest  gift  to  us  has  been  that  legacy  of 
Christian  consecration,  left  by  those  who,  fifty  years 
ago,  gave  themselves  '*  first  to  the  Lord  and  then  to 
the  work."  That  consecration,  lived  out  in  the  lives 
of  the  teachers,  and  in  the  lives  of  students,  who, 
class  after  class,  have  brought  or  caught  the  spirit, 
and  in  the  prayer  and  labor  and  sympathy  of  the 
citizens,  that  earnest  devotion,  which  was  here 
at  first,  is  here  still.  These  young  people  as  they 
come  are  still  watched  and  loved,  and  prayed  into 
the  kingdom.  And  though  they  do  not  all  know 
it,  their  lives  will  show  it  to  the  world,  and  they 
themselves  will  understand  it  as  they  grow  older. 

And  then,  I  think,  Oberlin  has  done  a  great  work 
for  woman  in  the  co-education  of  the  sexes.  This 
plan  of  study  is  often  spoken  of  as  of  great 
benefit  to  the  young  men — that  it  refines  and 
elevates  them  ;  but  it  has  been  no  less  a  gain  to 
the  young  women.  It  brings  them  together  with- 
out artificiality — in  natural  relations.  At  home 
we  have  brothers   and   sisters,   in    our    common 


1 74  OBERLIN  JUBILEE, 

schools  boys  and  girls,  and  in  society  men  and 
women.  Under  the  restraint  which  our  Christian 
college  gives  the  influence  is  wholesome  and  suc- 
cessful. But  we  are  often  asked,  with  a  shrug 
of  the  shoulders,  *'  Does  not  this  bringing  together 
of  so  many  young  people  culminate  in  a  great 
many  marriages?"  Marriage  is  not  the  state  most 
dreaded  by  parents  usually  for  their  children,  but 
somehow  they  feel  they  ought  to  wait  until  they 
are  in  society.  Perhaps  /  am  prejudiced,  but  I 
have  certainly  failed  to  see  how  society  acquaint- 
ances can  be  more  reliable  than  those  formed  in 
class  recitations,  where  so  many  are  brought  into 
competition.  Where  will  thoroughness  and  trust 
and  manhood  and  womanhood,  or  the  lack  of 
these,  be  more  patent  than  during  years  of  work 
side  by  side?  The  actual  result  of  this  arrange- 
ment is  that  fewer  matches  are  made  than  we 
would  expect,  while  the  sickly  sentimentality  of 
the  girl  has  its  best  antidote  in  the  every-day  com- 
panionship of  boys  much  like  her  own  brothers 
at  home.  Romance  may  lose  something  of  its 
charm,  but  genuine  attachment  and  happy  homes 
gain  more. 

The  higher  education  which  Oberlin  has  offered 
from  the  first  to  woman  has  had  great  influence 
over  the  whole  land.  It  has  been  like  leaven  work- 
ing in  the  minds  of  our  educators,  until  now  many 
schools  have  taken  her  as  their  model,  and  have 
learned  to  fear  less  and  less  that  women  should 
get  too  much  of  discipline.  The  world  generally 
is   coming    to   feel    that    her   life,   though    more 


WHAT  OBERLIN  HAS  DONE  FOR    US.         1 75 

secluded  than  man's,  gives  full  scope  for  all  her 
best  developed  powers. 

What  one  of  our  State  Home  Missionary  sec- 
retaries writes — "  When  I  want  a  man  for  a  hard 
place  and  hard  work  I  go  to  Oberlin  for  him,  and 
I  find  him  " — is  true  also  of  our  sisters.  I  have  dur- 
ing the  past  week  been  looking  over  our  Triennial, 
and,  knowing  many  of  the  Alumnae,  can  but  see 
that  they  have  not  been  lacking  in  their  willingness 
to  quietly  take  the  hard  work,  fitting  themselves 
often  by  its  faithful  doing  far  better,  but  seldom 
bemoaning  their  narrow  spheres.  The  atmosphere 
of  Oberlin  has  led  to  true  womanly  development. 
No  mannish  tendency  to  woman's  rights  has  here 
found  congenial  soil.  Our  women  have  seldom  be- 
wailed their  lack  of  opportunity,  but,  seeing  the 
great  harvest,  have  only  nerved  themselves  by 
prayer  for  the  work  that  needed  to  be  done.  No 
theory  obtains  here  that  our  graduates  need  to 
search  to  find  their  spheres.  Some  schools  foster 
the  idea  that  women  must  have  a  career,  seek 
a  mission,  do  something  in  the  gaze  of  the  world. 
An  eastern  graduate,  in  telling  me  of  her  class, 
spoke  of  one  as  a  physician,  one  as  artist,  one  a 
public  singer,  one  an  elocutionist,  and  another  a 
lecturer,  and  sadly  of  her  own  life  as  wasted  be- 
cause it  had  been  spent  at  duty's  call  in  a  shady 
corner,  ministering  to  aged  parents,  and,  forsooth, 
brightening  and  purifying  all  the  little  village 
where  she  lived.  It  was  her  work,  she  vSaid,  and 
she  did  it,  but  she  spoke  despondingly  of  her  luck 
and  of  the  others'  success.     Little  of  this  despon- 


1 76  OB E RUN  j  UBILEE, 

dency  has  come  to  our  women.  With  fetv 
exceptions  they  have  felt  that  the  work  to  which 
they  were  called  was  the  best  work^  and  rejoiced 
in  it. 

But  while  there  has  been  among  us  little  restless 
seeking  after  new  work,  there  has  been  great  readi- 
ness to  enter  enthusiastically  into  all  the  educa- 
tional and  philanthropic  movements  of  the  day;  to 
lend  a  hand,  or,  when  need  be,  to  guide  in  the 
formation  of  new  activities  for  the  world's  good. 
In  woman's  missionary  and  temperance  organiza- 
tions, in  the  charities  of  our  cities,  and,  more  than 
in  any  other  place,  perhaps,  as  teachers,  have  our 
sisters  taken  prominent  part.  How  can  we  meas- 
ure the  influence  of  the  vast  number  who,  season 
after  season,  during  the  forty  winter  vacations,  gave 
themselves  to  our  common  school?  How  can  we 
value  aright  the  devoted  labor  of  our  graduates, 
in  the  south  ?  Where  else  could  the  American 
Missionary  Association  have  found  its  faithful 
helpers?  How  else  could  the  great  educational 
problem  of  our  land  be  so  nearly  solved  ? 

It  has  been  great  matter  of  pride  that  the  schools 
of  the  east  and  the  west,  born  of  the  new  impulse 
for  woman's  higher  education,  have  found  here 
many  of  their  professors,  and  that  our  Alumnae 
have  been  ready  to  take  their  places  as  instructors 
in  the  languages,  mathematics,  and  belles  lettres, 
places  which  otherwise  would  have  been  hard  to 
fill. 

But  it  is  to  the  Christian  homes  which  our  sisters 
have   made    that   our    hearts    turn    with    special 


WHAT  0 BERLIN  HAS  DONE  FOR    US.  1 77 

thanksgiving  and  pride — homes  which  have  been 
centres  of  all  blessed  healing  influences,  and  which, 
but  for  Oberlin,  would  have  lost  much  of  their 
sweetness  and  their  power.  The  civilization  and 
Christianization  of  the  world  is  to  these  homes 
greatly  the  debtor,  and  in  them,  blessed  of  God, 
many  of  us  rejoice  to  work  and  wait. 


LAKE  ERIE  SEMINARY  TO  OBERLIN 
COLLEGE. 

BY   MISS   MARY   EVANS, 
Painesville,  Ohio. 

It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  bring  you  greeting 
and  God-speed  to-day,  dear  Oberlin  neighbors 
and  friends.  It  will  not  harm  you  to  be  told 
many  times  and  in  various  ways  how  good  you 
are,  for  we  who  congratulate,  are  sure  that  it  will 
only  incite  you  to  greater  earnestness  to  make 
Oberlin's  good,  great  name  still  better  and  that  it 
will  glorify  Him  to  Whom  is  all  the  praise.  And 
it  is  always  good  and  pleasant  for  neighbors  to 
congratulate  neighbors.  We  live  in  each  other's 
welfare,  and  if  one  member  rejoice  all  the  mem- 
bers rejoice  with  it. 

As  this  is  not  a  promiscuous  public  gathering, 
I  may  be  indulged  in  a  personal  reminiscence  of 
my  first  visit  to  Oberlin  soon  after  I  came  to  Ohio. 
I  was  fresh  from  Mount  Holyoke  Seminary,  and 
in  that  absorbing  and  secluded  life  the  name  of 
Oberlin  was  not  as  familiar  as  it  should  have  been, 
and  was  indefinitely  mingled  in  our  minds  with 
slavery,  pro  and  con^  with  co-education  and  other 
much-discussed  subjects.  Perhaps  my  early  train- 
ing in  a  more  Southern  latitude  and  in  a  very  old 


LAKE  ERIE   SEMINARY  GREETING.  1 79 

Old  School  church  had  more  to  do  with  a  little 
distrust,  not  to  say  prejudice,  in  regard  to  this  pe- 
culiar college.  I  came  to  spend  a  week  with  my 
good  friends,  Professor  and  Mrs.  Mead,  when  they, 
too,  were  learning  Oberlin.  That  week  chanced 
to  be  just  before  President  Fairchild's  departure 
for  Europe,  and  there  were  dinners  and  teas  and 
evenings  to  bid  him  good-bye,  and  thus  an  unusual 
opportunity  for  making  acquaintances.  The  first 
impression,  (and  it  has  deepened  with  successive 
visits)  was,  how  simple  and  free  and  natural,  how 
these  good  people  love  one  another,  how  kind  and 
cordial  to  '■'  the  stranger  within  their  gates,"  how 
earnest  in  every  good-work.  The  Oberlin  atmos- 
phere was  invigorating,  and  it  began  to  invigorate 
very  early  in  the  morning.  I  have  not  forgotten 
the  click  of  the  gate  long  before  the  gray  dawn 
and  the  scurry  of  manly  feet  along  the  board  walk 
on  the  way  to  breakfast  at  Ladies'  Hall.  The  two 
principals,  Mrs.  Dascomb  and  Mrs.  Johnston,  were 
like  old  friends  at  once,  and  gave  me  a  warm  wel- 
come to  work  in  Ohio.  How  often  the  placid  face 
of  that  dear  saint,  whom  we  all  miss  to-day,  has 
been  to  me  an  inspiration  to  Love,  Hope  and  Pa- 
tience, these  three,  that,  according  to  Coleridge, 
''upbear  the  little  world  below  of  education,"  and, 
most  of  all  to  Patience,  the  mute  sister,  who, 
"when  Love  and  Hope  give  way,  nothing  loth, 
and  both  supporting,  does  the  work  of  both."  Of 
course,  I  heard  Mr.  Finney  preach  and  smiled  at 
his  quamtness  and  was  melted  by  his  prevailing 
eloquence.     Later,  I   saw  him  agam,  and  I   have 


1 80  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

among  other  memories,  a  last  word  of  his  that 
came  **  like  that  benediction  which  follows  after 
prayer." 

Since  that  first  visit  the  neighborly  bonds  have 
been  growing  stronger.  Your  Professor,  who, 
with  the  glow  of  a  great  enthusiasm,  lights  up  for 
you  the  pages  of  the  past,  comes  to  us  each  year 
with  the- best  results  of  his  research,  and  he  comes 
into  our  household,  and  goes  on  picnics  with  us, 
and  laughs  and  chats  like  the  merriest  of  us,  for  all 
of  which  we  hold  him  in  high  esteem.  We  do 
not  intend  that  Professor  Wright  shall  trace  the 
glacial  moraine  further,  without  coming  to  tell  us 
about  it.  Have  we  not  been  geologizing  with 
him  till  we  have  learned  to  recognize  till  when  we 
see  it,  and  kettle-holes,  and  all  the  rest?  Your 
sweet  singers  have  come  to  sing  to  us,  and  when 
Professor  Rice  has  that  Conservatory  building  in 
shape  and  rests  a  little  from  his  great  labor,  are 
we  not  to  have  yearly  good  talks  and  good  times, 
that  have  long  been  promised  ? 

Ah,  what  it  is  to  have  good  neighbors,  and  know 
them,  and  feel  the  support  of  their  sympathy. 
Sometimes  people  say,  and  we  must  confess  that 
in  hours  of  despondency  we  have  even  said  it  to 
ourselves,  "  Oberlin  is  so  big,  and  you  are  so  little : 
what  can  you  expect  to  do  r  Look  at  1493  students 
on  one  side  and  143  on  the  other.  Your  little  boat 
is  sure  to  be  swamped,  and  that  is  what  your  ups 
and  downs  are  coming  to."  But  better  counsel 
prevails,  and  (to  change  the  figure)  it  seems  to  us 
like  this:  we  all  lift  together,  and,  in  moral  upHlt, 


LAKE  ERIE   SEMINARY  GREETING.  l8l 

bigness  is  not  everything,  and  often  we  can  least 
afford  to  spare  that  force  for  higher  education 
which  seems  least  powerful.  If  all  this  region,  if 
all  the  land  is  to  be  raised  to  a  higher  conception 
of  the  dignity  and  power  of  education,  there  is  a 
place  for  all,  and  Oberlin,  great  and  kind — (not  con- 
descending) but  kind  and  true  as  great — will  never 
hinder  our  work. 

We  neighbors  not  only  share  a  common  work 
but  a  history  with  many  points  of  resemblance. 
In  1833,  when  your  heroic  fathers  and  mothers 
were  laying  your  foundations  broad  and  deep,  a 
plain  woman  of  the  people,  coming  up  from  the 
hearthstone,  where,  to  pay  for  her  education,  *'  she 
winged  the  potatoes  "  and  did  it  most  thoroughly 
too,  to  stand  among  the  foremost  women  teachers 
of  New  England ;  this  plain  woman  was  musing, 
and  the  fire  was  burning,  and  she  wrote  "  I  have 
been  thinking  for  a  great  while  about  those  young 
ladies  who  find  it  necessary  to  make  such  an  effort 
for  their  education  as  I  made  when  I  was  obtain- 
ing mine.  I  have  looked  out  from  my  quiet  scene 
of  labor  on  the  wide  world,  and  my  heart  has 
longed  to  see  many  enjoying  these  privileges  who 
Can  not  for  want  of  means,"  and  later,  when  the 
Seminary  was  taking  shape,  how  truthfully  she 
could  say,  ''  Had  I  a  thousand  lives  I  could  sacri- 
fice them  all  in  hardship  and  suffering  for  its  sake." 
The  best  heritage  of  Mt.  Holyoke  schools  is  the 
work  of  Mary  Lyon,  as  your  best  heritage,  Ober- 
lin of  to-day,  is  the  faith  and  prayers  of  those  who 
builded,  not  for  themselves,  but  for  God  and  hu- 


1 82  OBERLIN  J  UBILEE. 

manity.  Our  founders  did  not  dress  in  becoming 
raiment,  they  even  made  a  virtue  of  plainness, 
they  were  not  so  careful  as  to  graces  of  speech 
and  manner  as  were  some ;  our  early  Oberlin  and 
Mt.  Holyoke  did  not,  outwardly,  ''  blossom  as  the 
lily,"  but  they  ''  struck  forth  their  roots  like  Leb- 
anon." 

Some  of  these  foundation  principles  have  always 
been  misunderstood,  and  are  attacked  to-day,  but 
the  danger  is  not  from  without.  If  we  can  be  kept 
from  the  subtle  influences  that  pervade  even  our 
atmosphere  and  enter  our  school  life,  from  ''  decay 
of  conscience,"  from  "  pride,  vainglory  and  hy- 
pocrisy," there  will  be  great  cause  of  praise  to  Him 
who  alone  can  keep  us.  Labor  is  honorable. 
Head  and  heart  and  hand  shall  work  together. 
Money  does  not  make  the  man.  *'  The  life  is  more 
than  meat  and  the  body  than  raiment."  It  is  more 
blessed  to  give  than  to  receive,  to  minister  than  to 
be  ministered  unto.  In  society  we  are  members, 
one  of  another,  in  Christ ;  there  is  neither  Jew  nor 
Greek,  circumcision  nor  uncircumcision,  bond  nor 
free.  The  best  parts  of  our  history  are  but  the 
carrying  out  into  life  of  these  everlasting  truths. 
Side  by  side  on  many  a  mission  field,  West  and 
South,  and  over  the  seas,  graduates  of  Oberlin 
and  Mt.  Holyoke  are  hastening,  '^  the  coming  of 
of  the  glory  of  the  Lord  ;"  but  at  home,  or  abroad, 
wherever  they  are,  wherever  they  shall  be,  we 
can  wish  nothing  better  for  these  graduates  than 
to  follow  fearlessly  in  the  steps  of  those  grand 
men   and  women   of   fifty   years  ago,  who   were 


LAKE  ERIE   SEMINARY  GREETING.  1 83 

afraid  of  nothing  so  much  as  that  ''  they  might  not 
know  all  their  duty,  or  might  fail  to  do  it." 

But  this  is  an  hour  for  looking  forward  as  well 
as  backward,  seeing  unto  what  all  these  congra- 
tulations and  reminiscences  tend.  Women  with 
women,  heart  to  heart,  there  must  be  something 
to  say  to  each  other  in  behalf  of  young  woman- 
hood coming  on  so  swiftly  into  our  place.  Others 
will  speak  at  this  time  of  woman  in  the  great 
world.  These  who  have  labored  long  to  right  her 
wrongs,  will  be  eloquent  in  asking  for  her  a  larger 
place  in  that  great  world's  affairs.  Shall  we  not 
hear,  too,  some  burning  words  from  Oberlin's 
heart  on  fire  for  temperance,  ''  for  God  and  home 
and  native  land."  And  is  there  not  something  to 
say,  women  so  favored  of  God  in  our  past  and 
present,  in  behalf  of  others  in  far  other  circum- 
stances ?  Surely,  while  we  honor  in  this  Jubilee 
those  brave  men  who  sealed  in  death  their  loyalty 
to  principles  taught  here,  and  while  we  greet 
the  living  returned  in  safety  from  the  well-fought 
field,  we  shall  not  forget  Oberlin  women  who  fol- 
lowed in  the  train  of  war  to  heal  and  teach,  and 
since  then  have  held  a  hundred  ''  posts  of  vantage  " 
in  a  longer  conflict  with  ignorance  and  prejudice 
and  sin,  nor  those  other  women  who  have  gone 
"over  gloomy  hills  of  darkness  "  to  carry  light  to 
other  lands.  Will  not  some  mother  in  Israel  rise 
here,  and  while  our  hearts  are  warm  and  tender, 
bid  us  consider  what  thank-offering  we  shall  bring 
in  Christ's  name  for  His  little,  weak  ones,  our  sis- 
ters in  this  land  and  in  all  the  world.     Oberlin  for 


1 84  OBERLIN  J  UBILEE, 

woman's  rights  in  the  widest  sense ;  Oberlin  for 
temperance ;  Oberlin  for  woman's  work  for  woman. 
Each  watchword  finds  response  in  true  hearts  to- 
day. 

I  come  as  a  neighbor  teacher.  Women  will  be 
teachers;  girls  will  be  taught  these  fifty  years 
coming  as  in  the  fifty  years  past.  How  nobly 
Oberlin  has  made  provision  for  young  women 
from  the  begining  is  matter  of  history,  and  with 
almost  eight  hundred  of  them  enrolled  in  your 
catalogue  ot  the  past  year,  we  your  neighbors, 
may  well  come  to  you  to«  learn  what  is  best  for 
young  women  everywhere.  There  will  not  be 
time  for  formal  discussion,  but  there  may  be  inter- 
vals in  the  great  feast  when  mothers  and  teachers 
may  take  counsel  together  and  get  new  courage 
for  their  work.  We  shall  learn,  we  trust,  what 
manner  ot  education  this  higher  education  for 
women  shall  be. 

As  I  wrote  these  words  and  looked  up  to  the 
Scripture  roll  above  my  desk,  I  read,  ''  Grow  in 
grace  and  in  the  knowledge  of  our  Lord  and 
Savior  Jesus  Christ."  Yes,  this  first  and  this 
always,  as  it  has  been  at  Oberlin.  When  hearts 
are  bowed  with  a  sense  of  their  sin  and  their  need 
of  a  Savior ;  when  life  looks  real  and  earnest,  and 
there  is  hearty  consecration  to  God  and  love  for 
the  world  for  which  Christ  died  ;  then  the  right 
beginning  is  made,  and  other  foundation  for  educa- 
tion can  no  man,  no  woman,  lay  with  any  hope  of 
success. 

A  vital  question  for  us,  as  women,  relates  to  the 


LAKE  ERIE   SEMINARY  GREETING.  1 85 

physical  basis  of  education.  Magazine  articles  are 
setting  forth  the  advantages  of  the  higher  educa- 
tion for  health's  sake  ;  but  as  yet  it  is  a  case  of  the 
''survival  of  the  fittest,"  and  they  are  few.  Many 
more  might  be  completing  full  collegiate  courses, 
if  they  could  have  run  the  race  less  heavily 
weighted.  Oberlin  has  always  protested  against 
burdens  too  heavy  to  be  borne.  Cannot  she  do,  as 
well  as  say,  something  to  lift  the  heavy,  dragging 
skirts  that  weight  the  students  of  to-day?  If 
young  girls  were  clothed  from  feet  to  head  accord- 
ing to  the  laws  of  health,  their  ability  to  get  an 
education  and  to  make  good  use  of  it  would  be 
increased  tenfold.  What  do  you  say  to  setting 
down  among  the  requirements  for  admission,  suit- 
able dress,  first,  healthfully  made,  and  then  suitable 
for  girl  students  in  material  and  style  ?  We  should 
need  all  the  moral  support  which  each  and  every 
school  for  women  could  give.  What  an  outcry 
would  be  made  against  sumptuary  laws,  attempt- 
ing  to  regulate  the  use  ot  velvets  and  diamonds ! 
How  ridiculous  to  read,  along  with  "  Seven  Ora- 
tions of  Cicero,"  or  ''  Three  Books  of  the  Ana- 
basis," "'  Candidates  cannot  enter  unless  their  skirts 
are  supported  from  their  shoulders,  their  power  of 
respiration  comes  up  to  a  certain  standard,  and 
the  girth  of  their  waist  be  thus  and  so."  We 
preach  no  dress  reform  of  the  severe  order :  rather 
let  us  have  dress  that  has  grace  and  sentiment,  and, 
above  all,  fitness — fitness  for  times  and  seasons,  not 
only  seasons  of  the  year,  but  the  seasons  of  our 
changing  age,  so  that  we  shall  not  all  be  dressed 


1 86  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

on  the  same  monotonous  level  of  so  much  trim- 
ming around  the  skirt  and  just  such  a  loop  to  the 
drapery,  the  same  style  for  sixteen  and  sixty. 
When  we  think  of  the  time,  strength  and  money 
wasted  because  women  do  not  know  what  to  wear  ; 
and  when  we  think  what  a  gracious,  refining  influ- 
ence dress  may  be,  are  we  not  almost  ready  to  ask 
for  a  professorship,  or  at  least  a  lectureship,  of 
clothes,  not  less  of  manners?  It  does  make  a  dif- 
ference how  we  do  things,  and  many  a  lesson  is 
needed  when  young  people  are  getting  ready  for 
life.  All  helps  to  refinement,  all  things  beautiful 
in  sound  and  color  and  form  ma}^  be  used.  They 
must  not  be  abused.  The  time  has  come  for 
Oberlin  to  blossom.  True,  there  is  need  of  cau- 
tion. Better  have  Slab  Hall  and  none  of  the 
amenities  than  lose  uprightness  and  downright- 
ness  of  character.  No  curved  line  of  beauty  can 
compensate  for  this.  But  we  cannot  believe  that 
the  fair  proportions  of  these  new  buildings,  that 
anything  beautiful  and  graceful  will  spoil  Oberlin 
so  long  as  she  has  daily  the  dew  of  the  presence  of 
the  Lord  to  cause  her  to  grow  both  in  beauty  and 
strength. 

As  for  the  intellectual  in  education,  we  are  in  a 
transition  state  which  calls  for  special  wisdom. 
Long  ago  Oberlin  decided  that  women  might 
learn  the  alphabet,  and  the  Greek  alphabet,  too,  if 
they  would.  It  was  to  Oberlin  that  such  women 
as  Almeda  Booth,  General  Garfield's  counsellor 
and  friend,  came  for  what  they  could  not  get  else- 
where.    It  is  only  reaping  what  you   have    been 


LAKE  ERIE   SEMINARY  GREETING.  1 87 

sowing-  that  you  have  so  many  young  women  in 
the  classical  course  of  study,  and  it  is  largely  due 
to  your  influence  that  in  so  many  places  college 
courses  and  degrees  are  free  to  women  as  men. 
It  is  a  fair,  open  field  now,  and  the  honors  of  suc- 
cess are  for  all.  But  how  much  is  best  for  young 
women?  How  shall  they  spend  time  and  strength 
when  both  seem  so  small  and  the  field  of  knowl- 
edge grows  larger  every  year  ?  A  woman's  train- 
ing must  be  a  more  complex  matter  than  a  man's, 
for  the  special  preparation  for  her  woman's  work 
cannot  wait  till  college  days  are  done.  All  along 
the  course,  by  the  side  of  her  Greek  and  mathe- 
matics, she  must  be  learning  and  doing  a  thousand 
little  things  which  belong  to  women,  not  to  men. 
So  she  needs  more  time,  and  in  order  to  secure 
the  time,  there  must  be  wise  planning  when  she  is 
but  a  wee  thing,  and  faithful  oversight  all  along  the 
line.  If  you  say  she  need  not  be  ambitious  to  ac- 
quire so  much,  I  must  answer  that  my  sympathies 
are  on  the  side  of  the  girls  who  aim  high  and  want 
the  best  that  is  to  be  had.  And  if  it  were  not  for 
wasted  time  and  strength  coming  from  indefinite- 
ness  of  plan  in  earlier  years,  and  from  insufficient 
and  overlapping  courses  of  study,  which  do  not 
prepare  for  college,  there  need  be  no  great  diffi- 
culty in  compassing  all  that  is  included  in  the 
most  liberal  courses  of  study.  Can  we  not  do 
something  as  teachers  to  set  girls  in  the  way  of 
systematic  preparation,  so  that  they  may  come 
fresh  and  vigorous  to  this  higher  work? 

There  is  another   queston.     What   is  woman's 


1 8  8  OBERLIN  J UBILEE. 

place  as  teacher  in  these  days  ?  A  very  large  place, 
say  those  who  know.  The  teaching  in  our  public 
schools  is  mainly  in  the  hands  of  women.  The 
silver-tongued  Dr.  Storrs,  an  orator  indeed,  said 
at  the  fiftieth  commencement  of  Abbott  Academy 
(that  school  for  women,  older  even  than  Oberlin), 
''The  work  of  education  becomes  not  woman's 
occupation  merely,  but  her  profession  even."  And 
here  again,  Oberlin  has  recognized  and  acted  upon 
the  truth.  She  has  been  a  wise,  cherishing  mother 
beyond  most  colleges.  Her  Ladies'  Board  com- 
mands my  admiration  and  respect  more  than 
almost  anything  else  in  her  system  of  education. 
We,  at  Lake  Erie  Seminary,  are  proud  to  think 
that  one  of  our  own  graduates  has  so  long  been  a 
member  of  it.  How  wise  to  provide  for  the  over- 
sight of  girls  by  mothers  as  well  as  teachers,  and 
what  a  support  to  the  little  group  of  lady-teachers 
with  their  charge  of  almost  eight  hundred,  and 
how  admirably  the  balance  is  thus  preserved  in 
the  interest  of  all  that  is  womanly.  And,  as  if  this 
were  not  enough,  the  homes  of  Oberhn  have  sup- 
plemented this  work,  "  town  and  gown,"  not  at 
sword's  point,  but  at  one.  Fathers  and  mothers, 
as  well  as  professors  and  tutors,  and  boards  of 
management!  The  school  thus  equipped  must 
prosper. 

None  the  less,  I  confidently  expect,  as  I  hope,  to 
to  see  the  day,  when  Oberlin  will  call  more  women 
to  her  board  of  instruction.  I  do  not  wish  to  see 
a  woman  in  a  professor's  chair  as  a  matter  of  chiv- 
alrous concession,  but  only  as  she  is  best  fitted  for 


LAKE  ERIE   SEMINARY  GREETING.  1 89 

the  place,  and  because  the  place  wants  her.  There 
are  departments  which  a  woman  of  years  and  ex- 
perience might  fill  as  ably  as  a  man,  and  some  of 
us  cannot  help  smiling  when  we  see  young  men 
scarcely  out  of  their  boyhood,  selected  and  hur- 
ried off  to  Germany  for  a  year  or  two  of  study  to 
prepare  them  for  some  professorship  of  language 
or  literature.  Of  course,  this  is  a  private  judg- 
ment from  the  standpoint  of  a  female  seminary,  a 
place  at  once  conservative  and  radical,  conserva- 
tive because  of  its  separation  from  the  outside 
world,  and  always  in  danger  of  narrowness  of 
vision,  but  also  radical,  because  having  done  work 
which  calls  for  no  small  amount  of  executive  force 
and  intellectual  power,  and  having  done  it,  perhaps, 
for  a  score  of  years,  women  teachers  cannot  clearly 
see  why  women  may  not  stand  beside  men  in  the 
work  of  instruction  anywhere. 

There  are  two  sides,  there  are  many  sides  to 
this  question.  We  are  bound  together  in  one  body 
of  our  womanhood,  and  we  do  not  complain,  we 
glory  in  it  rather,  that  women  will  always  find 
their  best,  their  truest  work  at  home,  and  that 
they  are  not  as  a  class  open  to  calls  to  a  profes- 
sor's chair.  Nor  is  it  matter  of  regret  that  any 
woman,  the  most  absorbed  and  devoted,  may  hear 
and  heed  another  kind  of  call,  and  Tennyson's 
Princess  become  reality.  We  take  account  of  this 
measure  of  uncertainty  in  what  women  may  do, 
but  we  also  remember  that  there  are  those  who 
are  set  apart  by  a  great  sorrow  or  by  some  con- 
straining circumstance  to  special  usefulness  in  the 


190  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

work  of  education.  Such  women  will  not  beg  for 
places  in  which  to  work,  nor  should  their  fitness 
for  any  place  be  measured  by  the  fact  that  they 
are  women. 

Sad  would  be  the  day  if  women,  not  Christian, 
consecrated  women,  but  fond  of  power,  with  vain 
ambitions,  should  clamor  for  places  of  high  trust, 
and  by  Avrong  use  of  womanly  influence  get  them 
only  to  disgrace  the  name  of  woman.  Such  a  pos- 
sibility presents  itself  to  many  minds,  and  danger 
lies  this  way.  Without  balanced  Christian  charac- 
ters, without  modesty  and  humiUty  as  well  as  self- 
respect  and  self-control  no  woman  can  be  fit  (can 
any  man  be  fit  ?)  for  a  professor's,  a  teacher's  post 
of  honor  and  responsibility. 

Therefore,  neighbors  and  friends,  our  highest 
duty  to-day  is  to  preserve  the  ideal  which  has 
been  presented  at  Oberlin,  which  should  be  the 
standard  everywhere.  Character,  character,  is 
more  than  culture.  It  is  the  ripe  fruit  of  Christian 
culture.  Are  we  growing  ambitious  for  degrees? 
That  may  be  a  noble  ambition,  but  let  young  wo- 
men remember  that  the  A.M.  which  adorns  their 
names  should  have  also  this  meaning:  Mistress  of 
the  Arts  of  home-making  and  heart-keeping,  finest 
arts  of  all.  Do  not  despise  the  culture  which  may 
not  be  as  high,  intellectually,  as  yours  of  these 
later  years.  It  may  be  more  broad  and  deep. 
The  narrowest  people  in  the  world  are  those 
whose  intellects  are  cultivated  at  the  expense  of 
their  hearts. 

When  Professor  Ellis  asked  me,  weeks  ago,  to 


LAKE  ERIE   SEMINARY  GREETING.  I9I 

say  a  few  words  in  this  Alumnae  meeting,  how 
could  I  know  into  what  a  few  words  might  grow? 
Words!  words!  how  many  spoken  and  to  be 
spoken  in  these  Jubilee  days !  How  can  one  have 
ventured  to  add  unto  them?  Would  not  silence 
have  been  better,  sitting  as  our  Quaker  sisters  sit, 
to  let  the  still,  small  voice  speak  ?  But  even  they 
arise  to  take  the  cup  of  salvation  and  call  upon  the 
name  of  the  Lord.  We  will  do  likewise.  We 
reverence  your  honored  names,  we  rejoice  with 
you  in  your  fifty  years  of  struggle  and  victory, 
and  your  grand  outlook  into  the  future.  Words 
cannot  tell  what  we  think  of  you  and  hope  for  you. 
But  we  join  our  voices  with  your  great  chorus  to 
sing  "  Hallelujah,"  not  unto  Oberlin,  but  unto  the 
Lord  be  the  praise,  as  unto  Him  we  lift  up  our 
prayers  that  you  may  be  delivered  from  all  things 
that  defile,  and  that  you  may  go  forward  as  many 
years  as  are  in  the  wise  and  loving  purpose  of 
Him  whose  years  have  no  end. 


RE-UNION   OF   ALUMNI. 

Auditorium,  July  30,  2  p.m. 


THE   FIRST   DECADE. 

BY   REV.    H.    L.   HAMMOND,  '38, 
Chicago,  111. 

The  first  decade  was  the  heroic  age  of  conflict, 
I.  With  nature.  The  proposal  was  to  found 
here  an  educational  institution.  But  the  ground 
was  occupied  with  whole  regiments  of  nature's 
soldiers ;  tall,  stalwart,  compactly  set,  that  knew  not 
how  to  retreat,  but  did  know  how  to  hold  the  fort, 
with  feet  set  deep  in  the  most  tenacious  of  soils. 
In  this  first  conflict  "a  man  was  famous  according 
as  he  lifted  up  axes  against  the  thick  trees."  But 
though  hewn  down  by  the  battle-axe,  the  stumps 
held  the  ground  all  the  same  ;  and  what  grubbing, 
what  wrestling  with  roots,  what  dodging  of  mud- 
holes,  what  devices  to  fill  mud-holes,  what  toil, 
what  sweat  of  the  face  was  needed  to  open 
these  lands  for  the  sun  to  come  in,  for  building 
material  to  come  in,  for  the  world  to  comxC  in  and 
find  the  secluded  spot !  The  faith,  the  persever- 
ance, the  patience  that  fought  through  this  battle 
are  above  praise.  No  wonder  that  some  were  not 
equal  to  it — that  we  hear  of  one  who  had  brought 
his  family  all  the  way  from  Vermont,  but  halted 
half  way  from  Elyria,  and  went  back  to  New  Eng- 
land. Some  one  has  alluded  to  the  variety  ot 
tracks  between  Elyria  and  here,  but  if  he  had 
asked  which  he  had  better  take  the  answer  might 


THE  FIRST  DECADE.  I93 

well  have  been :  **  Take  any  of  them,  and  before 
you  are  half  way  there  you  will  wish  you  had 
taken  some  other."  In  1836,  after  three  years  of 
the  decade  had  passed,  a  visiting  editor  reported 
that ''  recency  and  incompletion"  were  the  "  charac- 
teristics of  Oberlin." 

2.  There  was  a  conflict  with  bad  men,  men  who 
hated  religion,  hated  temperance,  hated  the  colored 
man,  hated  the  Abolitionists.  Happily  this  contest 
was  less  perilous  personally  because  of  the  loca- 
tion. A  drunken  mob,  if  one  had  started  for  the 
place,  would  have  been  sober  before  wading 
hither.  The  earth  would  have  helped  this  woman 
in  the  wilderness  by  opening  its  many  mouths 
and  swallowing  up  the  rabble  flood  sent  after  her 
by  Satan.  I  am  not  now  speaking  of  a  fanciful 
peril.  Had  Oberlin  been  near  Cincinnati  or  Phil- 
adelphia or  New  York,  its  buildings  would  have 
been  torn  down  by  the  minions  of  the  slave-holding 
oligarchy  as  fast  as  erected.  The  same  lawless 
power  that  threw  press  after  press  of  Lovejoy's 
paper  into  the  Mississippi  would  have  thrown 
down  these  walls  one  after  another  if  they  had 
been  within  reach. 

3.  There  was  also  a  conflict  with  good  men  still 
harder  to  wage.  Men  who  thought  another  college 
in  Northern  Ohio  needless  and  antagonistic  to 
existing  colleges,  who  distrusted  the  plans  and 
principles  of  Oberlin  and  doubted  our  leaders ; 
men  who  had  the  ear  of  the  public,  who  controlled 
most  of  the  religious  papers  and  most  of  the 
wealth  of  the  country.     They  made  it  hard  for 


194  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

this  college  to  get  recognition,  hard  to  get  means ; 
they  drove  its  friends  out  of  the  country  to  the 
mother-land  for  standing  and  funds.  They  with- 
held aid  from  our  students  while  preparing  to 
preach,  and  pulpits  from  them,  when  prepared. 
They  cast  odmm  on  the  very  name  of  ^  our  Alma 
Mater,  and  branded  all  who  had  been  connected 
with  her  in  any  way.  Some  who  had  never  seen 
the  place  were  actually  excluded  from  churches 
under  the  vague  charge  of  "  Oberlinism."  I 
asked,  in  one  case,  of  a  Presbyterian  elder  ''  what 
wrong  they  had  done?"  The  reply  was,  ''We 
didn't  quite  know  what  to  charge  them  with,  and 
so  we  said  *  Oberlinism.'  " 

This  experience,  unfortunately,  was  not  confined 
to  the  first  decade,  and  I  will  dwell  on  it  no  longer, 
lest  I  trespass  on  the  ground  of  succeeding 
speakers  ;  I  will  only  add,  the  hardest  of  all  our 
battles  was  this  with  good  men,  and  it  is  the 
greatest  wonder  of  the  century  that  they  did  not 
strangle  Oberlin  in  its  cradle.  "  If  it  had  not  been 
the  Lord  who  was  on  our  side  when  men  (bad  and 
good)  rose  up  against  us,  then  they  had  swallowed 
us  up  quick." 

The  first  decade  was  one  of  experiment . 

I.  In  the  matter  of  diet.  How  little  a  student 
could  live  on  and  do  his  work ;  whether  he  needed 
meat,  or  milk,  or  butter,  or  tea  or  coffee  ;  whether 
his  appetite  was  any  index  of  the  kind  or  amount 
of  food  best  for  him,  or  that ''  he  should  rise  from  the 
table  as  hungry  as  when  he  sat  down ;"  how  many 
''  condiments,"  he  should  use.     Some  simple  souls 


THE  FIRST  DECADE.  1 95 

had  to  ask — "Condiment?  what  dish  is  that?" 
From  what  has  appeared  at  Oberlin  tables  in  later 
years  I  infer  that  good  food  is  now  thought  as 
useful  to  students  as  to  other  people,  and  that  un- 
perverted  appetites  direct  as  to  the  quantity  needed 
and  are  not  to  be  despised. 

2.  Experiment  in  manual  labor.  It  was  then 
claimed  that  regular  labor  for  a  few  hours  of  the 
day  would  be  a  help,  not  a  hindrance,  to  study, 
and  would  also  be  a  great  pecuniary  benefit  to  the 
student.  So  we  tried  that  experiment,  under 
great  disadvantages,  it  must  be  confessed.  The 
transition  was  very  stern  and  violent  here  from 
the  metaphysical  to  the  physical,  from  Greek  roots 
to  oak  roots,  from  chopping  logic  to  chopping 
cord-wood,  from  logarithms  to  log-rolling.  Yet 
probably  the  results  would  have  been  about  the 
same  anywhere.  A  man  cannot  long  give  his  best 
energies  to  two  different  kinds  of  business,  and 
when  both  kinds  demand  the  best  as  conditions  of 
success,  one  or  the  other  must  soon  suffer,  or  this 
servant  of  two  hard  masters  must  suffer.  Change 
of  work  will  for  a  time  be  a  kind  of  relaxation,  but 
only  for  a  time. 

3.  Oberlin  experimented  on  a  new  course  of 
study.  It  was  thought  that  the  Hebrew  might 
take  the  place  of  some  of  the  classics,  and  that 
inspired  seers  might  discipUne  the  mind  and  heart 
better  than  pagan  poets.  The  displacement  of  the 
Hebrew  from  the  college  course  belongs  to  a  later 
period,  and  perhaps  the  older  alumni  engaged 
elsewhere  are  not  as  good  judges  of  the  wisdom 


ig6  OB E RUN  JUBILEE. 

of  the  change  as  those  who  have  here  made  the 
educational  problem  their  Hfe-study.  Yet  for 
one  I  hope  that  admiration  of  the  Latin  and  the 
desire  to  be  Hke  other  colleges  will  never  crowd 
out  good  old-fashioned  English,  even  on  com- 
mencement day :  at  least  that  the  two  languages 
will  never  get  so  mixed  as  they  were  in  the  mouth 
of  a  pedantic  college  president  further  west,  who 
called  for  "■  more  musical 

4.  Co-education  was  another  experiment,  and  I 
am  happy  to  add,  proved  such  a  success  that  it 
remains  to  this  day.  It  was  not  absolutely  new 
here ;  it  had  been  found  in  all  public  schools  for 
children,  some  academies  and  some  Methodist 
denominational  institutions,  but  probably  no  col- 
lege attempted  it  before  this. 

I  will  allude  to  one  of  its  perils  in  those 
early  years.  Indecent  anonymous  letters  to  the 
young  ladies  gave  evidence  of  the  presence  here 
of  a  villain,  for  the  treatment  of  whom  Oberlin 
received  the  severest  criticism  and  condemnation. 
A  determined  effort  was  made  to  hold  its  theology 
responsible  for  the  extra-judicial  means  used  to 
detect  and  suppress  the  scoundrel.  As  I  was  not 
here  at  the  time,  I  may  be  allowed  to  say  a  word 
in  behalf  of  my  Alma  Mater,  which,  so  far  as  I 
know,  has  never  been  publicly  said.  Men  in  an 
emergency  sometimes  act  better  than  they  can 
explain  or  defend  themselves  for  afterwards. 
Andrew  Jackson  always  beheved  that  he  did 
right  in  suspending  the  City  Government  in  New 
Orleans,    but  it  is  said   he   never   knew   how  to 


THE  FIRST  DECADE.  1 97 

defend  himself  till  Stephen  A.  Douglass  explained 
it  to  his  satisfaction.  Oberlin  at  the  time  humbled 
itself  before  the  pubhc  and  pleaded  guilty.  While 
I  admired  its  meekness,  I  demurred  to  its  plea. 
It  was  not  guilty,  or  if  it  was  in  some  sense,  the 
celebrated  verdict,  "■  Not  guilty ;  but  mustn't  do 
so  again,"  should  have  been  exactly  reversed, 
"  Guilty  ;  but  must  do  so  again  every  time."  That 
offender  struck  at  the  very  life  of  this  great  in- 
stitution. Unless  he  could  be  detected  and 
punished  and  such  deeds  prevented,  all  the  lady 
pupils  must  leave  Oberlin  never  to  return,  and  no 
others  come !  Parents  could  not  send  their 
daughters  here,  brothers  could  not  bring  their 
sisters  here  for  education.  But  no  law  on  the 
statute  book  of  Ohio  could  reach  the  culprit.  It 
was  a  plain  case  where  a  community  should  fall 
back  on  its  reserved  rights,  and  for  self-preserva- 
tion become  a  law  unto  itself.  There  are  times 
when  men  should  follow  the  dictates  of  their  own 
sense  of  justice  and  obey  human  law  passively  by 
suffering  its  penalties  when  they  come.  Strategy 
for  the  detection  of  the  masked  villain  and  muscle 
for  his  punishment  were  then  in  order:  the  study 
of  the  statute  book  could  wait  awhile. 

To  rob  the  shipwrecked  sailor  of  his  boat  and 
leave  him  only  the  sinking  wreck  or  a  single  plank 
in  mid-ocean  is  a  robbery  which  means  murder 
also,  and  may  be  resisted  to  the  taking  of  life. 
Hanging  for  horse-stealing  on  the  frontier  seems 
horrible  to  an  Eastern  community.  But  to  take 
away  the  horse  of  the  frontiersman  and  leave  him 


198  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

on  a  boundless  waste  or  in  the  dense  forest  is 
more  than  stealing — is  murder.  Hence  the  deed 
must  then  be  made  at  least  an  extra  hazardous 
business.  So  indecency  here  was  more  than  in- 
decency ;  it  was  high  treason.  The  miscreant 
who  then  struck  at  the  vitals  of  this  institution  ; 
who  would  have  prevented  the  education  here  of 
thousands  of  young  women ;  and  would  have 
marred  the  whole  plan  and  prosperity  of  this  com- 
munity ;  he  and  his  friends  should  have  been  pro- 
foundly grateful  to  that  leniency  which  spared 
his  worthless  life,  which  first  prayed  over  and 
then  only  horsewhipped  him,  rather  than  hung  him 
to  the  highest  tree  in  the  forest. 

All  sorts  of  theorists  and  fanatics  came  to 
Oberlin  in  those  early  days,  attracted  by  her  repu- 
tation for  proving  all  things,  but  many  of  them 
turned  sadly  away  when  they  learned  that  she 
would  ''  hold  fast"  only  ''  that  which  was  good." 
Perfectionists,  when  they  heard  of  the  zeal  here 
for  higher  Christian  attainments,  came  to  tell  us 
we  might  easily  be  perfect  by  rising  above  the 
moral  law  as  a  rule  of  duty,  but  they  found  here 
a  conception  of  law  so  high  there  was  no  rising 
above  it,  so  broad  there  was  no  escaping  it,  and 
they  went  elsewhere  for  proselj^tes. 

Millerites,  when  they  knew  how  eager  we  were 
to  renovate  the  world,  thought  we  would  readily 
vmite  with  them  in  burning  it  up  by  1843.  But 
Henry  Cowles — blessed  his  memory  and  blessed 
be  his  commentaries ! — went  into  such  a  thorough 
study  of  prophesy  as  to  detect  the  shallow  impos- 


THE  FIRST  DECADE.  I99 

ture,  and  such  an  exposition  of  prophesy  as  to 
confound,  not  Millerism  only,  but  all  other 
Judaistic  interpretations  of  the  old  prophets  that 
look  to  a  literal  rather  than  a  spiritual  kingdom 
of  God. 

Phrenologists  came  with  their  busts  and  charts, 
mapping  out  the  human  brain  and  locating  "the 
thirty-five  faculties."  But  President  Mahan  de- 
clined to  teach  us  mental  geography  from  their 
maps. 

The  creed  question  came  up  in  1836.  Prof. 
Finney,  with  characteristic  indignation  against 
some  formulas  of  doctrine  that  had  hindered 
revivals  and  stumbled  inquirers,  said:  "I  have 
sometimes  thought  that  I  would  have  only  two 
articles  in  a  creed :  First,  that  the  Bible  is  the 
only  rule  of  faith ;  and  the  second,  that  every 
other  creed  under  heaven  is  an  abomination  in  the 
sight  of  God.  But,  brother,"  he  added  with  that 
good  common  sense  also  characteristic  of  the  man, 
"  I  have  observed  that  churches  without  creeds 
have  not  generally  turned  out  well."  And  he 
prepared  one  for  the  first  church,  at  once  evan- 
gelical and  liberal,  which  excluded  no  Christian, 
and  has  without  change  been  satisfactory  for 
forty-seven  years.  Yet  should  it  ever  come  to 
stand  in  the  way  of  growth  in  grace  or  of  earnest 
hopeful  work  for  souls,  Finney  would  be  the  first 
to  call  for  a  revision. 

Dr.  Chalmers  once  asked  a  New  School  Ameri- 
can, "  What  is  this  New  School  Doctrine  I  hear  so 
much  about  from  America?"     "  It  is  an  effort  so 


200  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

to  state  the  doctrines  of  the  gospel  that  when  it  is 
preached  to  the  sinner  he  shall  have  no  excuse  for 
not  immediately  leaving  his  sins  and  accepting 
salvation."  "  A  most  desirable  object !"  exclaimed 
the  good  old  Scotchman. 

And  is  not  this  the  test  for  any  new  statements 
of  theology  now  ?  If  they  are  needed  to  save  souls, 
if  they  are  eminently  successful  in  converting  men 
from  sin,  they  will  worthily  challenge  the  atten- 
tion of  all  Christendom.  If  not  helpful  in  this 
direction,  the  presumption  is  they  are  of  doubtful 
value. 

The  medical  question  also  came  up  in  those 
years.  Big  pills,  little  pills,  no  pills  at  all,  cold 
water,  hot  water,  and  magnetism  all  had  their 
advocates.  Even  disease  was  defended  as  right 
action,  not  wrong ;  as  nature  shutting  down  the 
gate  for  repairs  and  pleading  not  to  be  interfered 
with  till  the  job  was  done,  when  she  would  her- 
self hoist  the  gate  and  resume  operations.  How 
these  medical  questions  were  settled  1  don't  quite 
remember;  perhaps  the  president's  history  tells. 

Extempore  preaching  was  a  favorite  reform  in 
that  decade.  We  all  expected  to  adopt  it  through 
life.  How  easy  it  seemed  to  preach  extempore  as 
we  listened  to  Morgan  and  Mahan  and  Finney ! 
As  easy  as  it  was  "for  the  Indian  to  see  the  white 
man  mow  !"  But  many  of  us  found  to  our  surprise 
that  our  scythes  were  not  hung  right,  they  would 
not  cut  so  smoothly  when  we  sought  to  turn  so 
nice  a  swath  ourselves.  The  reform  did  not  suit 
us  all.     Manv  of  us  have  to  write,  not  as  I  heard  a 


THE  FIRST  DECADE.  20I 

gentleman  say  in  Chicago  last  week,  that  he  might 
know  afterward  what  he  had  said,  "  but  that  we 
may  know  when  we  rise  what  we  are  going  to  say." 

The  spelling  reform  came  too  late  for  that 
decade.  Oberlin  did  nothing  for  it  then.  I  hope 
some  of  my  successors  will  tell  of  worthy  zeal 
against  the  drones  of  vowels  and  consonants  in 
our  printed  pages,  that  parade  themselves  before 
the  weary  eyes,  but  never  utter  a  sound  ! 

I  may  be  disappointed  in  this  hope,  for  not  long 
since  I  sent  a  letter  to  the  president,  written  in  the 
economical,  sensible,  short  spelling  way,  assuming 
that  he  would  be  delighed  with  and  would  imitate 
the  beautiful  model ;  but  I  received  a  very  courte- 
ous, fraternal  reply,  postscripted  with :  ''  Excuse 
my  spelling;  I  have  not  time  to  spell  short." 

I  have  been  asked  about  the  humorous  things 
and  the  college  pranks  of  those  times.  My  recol- 
lection is  that  humorous  things  were  scarce  then. 
The  atmosphere  was  not  congenial ;  the  business  of 
life  was  thought  too  serious ;  our  responsibilities 
too  overwhelming  for  trifling.  Others  may  havie 
different  impressions,  but  if  there  was  then  much 
here  that  was  funny,  "  you  can't  prove  it  by  me." 
I  did  indeed  hear  that  one  of  the  professors 
was  accused  of  lightness  because,  after  a  dry 
season,  when  the  vegetables  had  grown  very  small, 
he  asked  at  the  table  for  "an  adult  potato." 
Perhaps  the  most  ludicrous  thing  was  one  that 
was  intended  to  be  very  serious — a  labored  argu- 
ment by  a  sophomore  to  prove  that  it  is  wrong  for 
a  Christian  ever  to  laugh. 


202  0 BERLIN  JUBILEE. 

There  were  times  here  doubtless  when  the  mirth- 
fulness  of  youth  was  too  much  repressed.  When 
the  inquiries  by  the  little  boy  of  his  mother  might 
have  suggested  some  valuable  lessons  to  parents : 
"  Mama,  shall  1  go  to  heaven  when  I  die  ?"  "  I 
hope  so,  my  dear."  "  Who  will  be  there,  mama?" 
*'  Good  children,  my  boy."  ''  Will  all  the  children 
there  be  good  ?"  **  Yes,  my  son."  *'  But,  mama, 
if  I  am  very  good,  then,  all  the  week,  don't  you 
think  when  Saturday  comes  they  will  let  me  have 
just  one  little  devil  to  play  with  ?" 

The  good  people  here  filled  the  hours  too  full 
of  work  and  left  too  little  time  for  play.  But  is 
not  the  drift  of  many  colleges  to-day  too  strong  in 
the  opposite  direction  ? 

The  old  English  Reader  on  which  some  of  us 
were  brought  up,  had  a  select  sentence  of  this 
sort,  rather  stilted,  for  children :  '*  Amusement 
sometimes  becomes  the  business  instead  of  the 
relaxation  of  young  persons ;  it  is  then  highly 
pernicious." 

I  should  be  a  poor  witness  about  *'  innocent 
college  pranks,"  because,  first,  I  am  not  sure  of 
their  innocence  ;  second,  I  don't  remember  any  ; 
and  third,  if  1  did  I  should  think  them  better  con- 
signed to  oblivion  than  published.  Why  students 
should  not  obey  law  as  well  as  other  young  men ; 
why  they  should  not  be  kind,  gentlemanl}^  and 
fraternal  in  all  their  dealings  with  other  students  ; 
why  it  should  ever  be  thought  that  cunning,  or 
smart,  or  cute  to  haze  their  fellows,  to  steal 
melons,  to  prowl  about  hen-roosts,  to  play  tricks 


THE  FIRST  DECADE.  203 

on  loving-,  self-denying  teachers,  I  never  could 
understand  !  Older  colleges  have  these  things  as 
a  heritage  from  darker  ages :  why  not  allow  them 
a  monopoly  of  such  exploits?  We  can't  compete 
with  Princeton,  or  Union,  or  Yale,  or  Harvard, 
or  Dartmouth  in  the  record  of  "  hazings,"  "  bully- 
fights,"  *'  rushes,"  rebellious  and  disgraceful  broils. 
Why  should  we  try  ?  If  there  has  been  anything 
of  the  kind  here  let  us  hasten  to  bury  it  out  of 
sight,  that  it  come  not  to  the  notice  of  posterity. 

The  first  decade  was  one  of  intense  spiritual 
earnestness.  It  would  be  easy  to  trace  this  institu- 
tion itself  back  to  the  Finney  revivals  of  1825-32, 
which  inagurated  a  new  kind  of  preaching,  called 
for  a  new  type  of  ministers,  and  suggested  new 
schools  for  training  them.  A  beginning  was  made 
in  the  "  Oneida  Institute,"  founded  by  Rev.  G.  W. 
Gale,  Mr.  Finney's  old  pastor,  at  Whitesboro, 
N.  Y.,  which  tried  manual  labor  and  espoused 
abolition  before  Oberlin,  which  welcomed  colored 
students  without  a  contest,  which  discarded  meat 
and  tea  and  coffee  ;  from  which  Oberlin  received 
twenty-five  or  thirty  students,  either  directly  or 
via  Lane  Seminary  ;  whose  students  gave  to  Lane 
Seminary  its  anti-slavery  character,  whose  great 
leader,  Theodore  D.  Wild,  converted  these  col- 
onists and  students  to  abolition,  and  from  which, 
in  many  respects,  Oberlin  was  an  evolution. 

It  was  therefore  eminently  fit  that  Finney  should 
be  called  to  mold  the  spiritual  character  of 
Oberlin.  That  he  did  mold  it,  and  was  the  great 
historical  man  of  the  early  times,  none  can  doubt. 


204  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

His  position  was  at  first  in  the  theological  depart- 
ment,  but  by  his  preaching  he  gave  to  all  the 
students  their  theology.  They  may  have  gone 
elsewhere  to  study  theology,  but  the  principles 
Finney  had  so  deeply  implanted  could  not  be  dis- 
placed. And  his  practical  discourses  who  could 
forget?  When  he  so  vividly  describes  the  symp- 
tocns  of  any  moral  disease,  and  looked  into  you 
with  his  great  searching  eyes,  you  were  almost 
certain  3- ou  had  that  disease,  whether  it  were  luke- 
warmness  or  pride  or  even  hypocrisy. 

There  were  indeed  some  sensitive  and  over  con- 
scientious souls  who  were  not  so  much  benefited 
by  Mr.  Finney's  preaching ;  nor  was  he  always 
most  useful  when  he  thought  himself  so.  In  his 
autobiography  he  speaks  of  an  address  made  in 
the  chapel  in  1836,  on  the  distinction  between 
''desire  and  design  or  purpose;"  and  tells  how 
useful  it  was  in  sweeping  away  false  hopes,  so  that 
nearly  all  the  students  rose  to  confess  that  they 
had  never  been  Christians.  I  Avell  remember  that 
scene,  and  have  no  doubt  that  a  large  proportion 
of  those  students  were  mistaken  in  their  hasty 
judgments  against  themselves. 

Yet  vulnerable  as  he  was  in  some  respects,  I 
have  not  the  heart  to  criticise  the  noble  man. 
Others  did  that  enough  and  much  more  than 
enough.  "  The  archers  shot  at  him  and  hated 
him,  but  his  bow  abode  in  strength,  and  his  hands 
were  made  strong  by  the  mighty  God  of  Jacob." 
Oh  !  for  more  of  such  men.  This  age  needs  them  ; 
all  ages  need  them. 


THE  FIRST  DECADE.  20$ 

I  must  not  forget  to  speak  of  our  other  teachers  in 
that  decade :  of  President  Mahan  who  guided  our 
metaphysical  studies,  and  who  never  shrank  from 
the  discussion  of  any  subject  through  diffidence 
of  his  own  abiUty  to  master  it ;  of  John  Morgan, 
whom  everybody  loved,  able  to  hear  any  recitation 
in  any  department  except  perhaps  that  of  Prof. 
Dascomb  in  anatomy;  of  Henry  Cowles,  who 
knew  so  well  hov/  to  give  us  the  results  of  great 
learning  without  parading  the  processes,  and  his 
brilliant  brother,  John  P.  Cowles,  here  only  in  the 
earlier  years,  whose  darkened  old  age  awakens 
our  keenest  sympathy  ;  of  James  A.  Thome,  the 
genial  professor  of  rhetoric  and  belles-lettres ;  of 
George  Whipple,  bette^r  known  as  the  able  secre- 
tary of  the  American  Missionary  Association  ;  of 
T.  B.  Hudson,  with  his  wonderful  vocabulary, 
who  so  enlarged  our  knowledge  of  dictionary 
English  ;  of  the  lady  principals  and  teachers,  Mrs. 
Dascomb,  Mrs.  Cowles,  Miss  Adams  and  others, 
all  kept  here  and  at  their  faithful  labors,  not  by 
their  meagre  salaries,  but  by  conscience,  by  the 
love  of  Christ  and  the  love  of  souls — worthy 
coadjutors  all.  We  went  forth  with  their  blessing, 
graduating  under  the  old  tent  spread  on  this  very, 
spot.     "  Aye,  call  it  holy  ground." 

I  have  been  this  morning  to  see  the  historic 
elm.  It  is  not  large — very  small  indeed  in  com- 
parison with  the  historic  trees  of  Harvard  and 
Yale ;  but  it  has  not  a  wound  or  a  scar  on  its 
trunk,  or  a  dead  branch  on  its  top ;  it  is  sound, 
healthy  and  well  proportioned.     On  the  whole,  I 


206  C BERLIN  JUBILEE. 

am  glad  that  the  fathers  bowed  in  their  consecrat- 
ing prayer  under  so  young  a  tree,  that  has  so 
much  of  its  Hfe  still  in  the  future.  It  is  symbohcal, 
1  trust,  of  the  life  of  Oberlin.  The  fifty  years 
which  have  seen  the  fathers  all  pass  away  have 
left  the  elm  in  the  beauty  of  its  youth.  It  promises 
to  flourish  when  fifty  more  and  other  fathers  shall 
have  passed  away  ;  yea,  a  hundred  more. 

And  may  I  humbly  suggest  to  the  citizens  here 
that  you  preserve  it  with  a  more  sacred  care  that 
it  may  long  be  green  and  flourish.  Please !  re- 
move that  sidewalk  which  lies  on  its  roots.  Please  ! 
take  away  that  hitching  fence  and  let  the  horses 
tramp  on  less  sacred  ground.  Please!  take  out 
that  big  screw  from  one  side  and  that  insulator 
from  the  other,  and  as  fast  as  needed,  remove  other 
trees  from  around  it,  that  this  may  have  room  to 
spread ! 

In  pleading  thus  for  the  elm  I  mean  to  plead 
for  what  it  symbolizes.  Put  nothing  in  this  institu- 
tion, allow  nothing  around  it  that  shall  mar  its 
symmetry  or  hinder  its  growth.  Keep  it  in  all  its 
departments  true  to  the  grand  original  idea  of 
educating  the  young  for  Christ,  and  the  God 
of  our  fathers  will  make  its  life  like  the  life  of  a 
tree. 


THE   THIRD    DECADE. 

BY   REV.   J.   L.   PATTON,  '59, 
Greenville,  Mich. 

In  a  late  issue  of  a  certain  Oberlin  publica- 
tion— "  Jubilee  Notes,"  No.  4 — some  good  man 
writes :  "  I  stood  around  the  cradle  of  Oberlin  in 
its  infancy."  When  I  came  here,  although  my 
capabilities  in  that  direction  were,  perhaps,  equal 
to  those  of  any  man  on  the  ground,  that  feat  was 
no  longer  practicable.  I  had  to  stand  around 
somewhere  on  one  side  of  it.  The  cradle  and 
everything  in  it  had  been  growing  for  twenty 
years,  and  it  took  even  older  men  than  I  was  to 
''  stand  around  "  it. 

And  it  was  a  curious  looking  place  for  a  cradle, 
as  it  first  appeared  to  me.  1  reached  the  "  Hotel 
Plumb"  an  hour  after  a  midnight  early  in  March, 
1853.  The  night  was  dark  and  rainy,  with  the 
now  well-known  adjuncts  of  place  and  season.  I 
rode  from  the  depot  in  a  hack,  holding  on  to  my- 
self and  my  new  trunk — a  miscellaneous  sort  of  a 
ride.  In  the  morning  I  felt  much  as  must  that 
man  of  modern  fable  who  crossed  the  stream  and 
broke  the  bridge  down  behind  him.  It  was  cheaper 
to  stay  than  to  try  to  get  back  to  the  depot,  so  I  be- 
gan to  adjust  myself  to  my  nine  years'  stay  by 
looking  out  of  the  window  for  the  College. 


208  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

It  was  just  such  a  morning  as  men  hang  them- 
selves in.  The  ground  Avas  covered  with  snow, 
where  it  was  not  covered  Avith  water.  The  clouds 
were  black  and  cold,  and  the  wind  was  piping. 
Tappan  Hall  Square — it  had  not  then  grown  to 
the  dignity  of  "  College  Campus  " — lay  picturesque 
and  dismal.  It  had  but  recently  been  farmed  ; 
thrown  up  in  broad  ridges,  like  an  old  Virginia 
tobacco  field,  which  were  now  white  with  snow, 
the  long,  black  pools  of  water  lying  between. 
The  whole  was  surrounded  by  a  crooked  rail 
fence  of  various  height,  with  an  incipient  osage 
hedge  just  inside  of  it.  Tappan  Hall  was  the 
only  building  that  in  any  sense  looked  like  a 
college,  and  I  have  not  yet  lost  the  feeling  stirred 
up  by  that  first  look  at  it — I  should  like  to  see  it 
razed  before  we  go  away  from  here.  Altogether 
the  outlook,  that  morning,  was  desolate  in  the  ex- 
treme. 

The  place,  too,  was  full  to  bursting  with  stu- 
dents. The  scholarship  system  had  just  raised 
the  number  of  them  from  five  hundred  to  a  thou- 
sand, and  there  w^as  no  room  anyzvhere — in  reci- 
tation rooms,  at  breakfast  table,  on  the  side-walks, 
— and  I  found  room  to  sleep  only  when  a  good 
housewife  took  pity  on  me  and  put  me,  for  the 
time,  in  her  spare  bed. 

And  all  faces  were  strange  to  me.  Oberlin  had 
not  at  that  time  much  constituency  in  the  parts  I 
came  from — the  Little  Miami  Valley — and  it  was 
some  six  weeks  before  I  caught  sight  of  a  face  that 
I  had  seen  elsewhere.    It  was  in  a  high  gingham 


THE    THIRD  DECADE.  209 

bonnet;  and  to  this  day  Tve  not  been  sorry  that  I 
came  to  Oberlin. 

A  few  days  after  I  came  here,  the  whole  people 
turned  out  to  celebrate  the  twentieth  anniversary 
of,  I  think,  the  arrival  of  the  first  family  upon  the 
colony  ground.  Then  began  my  first  real  acquaint- 
ance with  Oberlin.  The  meeting  was  held  in  the 
first  church,  recitations  were  suspended,  and  every- 
body was  there.  Peter  P.  Pease  told  his  story, 
and  Mrs.  Pease  told  hers.  The  whole  matter,  of 
wondrous  interest,  was  then  talked  over.  The  peo- 
ple, both  of  colony  and  college,  thanked  God  for 
Oberlin,  and  prayed,  and  the  new  men  on  the 
ground  began  to  have  some  idea  of  what  they  had 
come  into. 

The  third  decade  of  Oberlin  was  a  time  of  great 
events,  and  its  pecuhar  features  were  marked.  The 
tide  of  events  in  the  nation,  in  the  educational  and 
missionary  world  was  rising,  and  the  day  of  small 
things,  for  Oberlin,  was  past.  No  mention  need 
be  made  here  of  the  religious  features  of  the  time ; 
they  have  from  the  first  been  constant,  and  we 
well  know  so,  also,  of  the  moral  and  political  fea- 
tures of  the  Institution,  together  with  her  force  in 
the  nation  as  an  educational  centre.  It  is  conceded 
that  in  those  stirring  times  which  changed  the  fea- 
tures of  the  nation,  Oberlin  carried  a  high  hand. 
No  single  religious  and  educational  institution  in 
the  land,  or  political  organization,  so  molded  and 
pushed  forward  the  public  opinion  that  forced  the 
great  changes  of  '60  to  '65,  as  did  Oberlin. 

She  was  enabled  to  thus  stand  before  all  others 


2 1 0  OBERLIN  J  UBILEE. 

by  a  peculiar  feature,  which  culminated,  perhaps, 
in  the  third  decade,  and  has  now  well  nigh  dis^ 
appeared.  That  was  the  golden  age  of  winter- 
school  teachers.  The  men  and  women  of  that  day 
here  were  themselves  a  peculiar  feature.  They 
were  not  sent  to  college  ;  they  came  of  their  own 
motion.  They  were  more  mature,  not  to  say 
older,  than  college  students  usually  are — than  they 
are  here  now.  They  were  young  men  and  women 
who  had  tried  the  battle  with  the  world  for  them- 
selves— had  seen  the  need  and  use  of  mental 
training,  and  neither  needing  nor  wishing  any  to 
help  them,  they  came  here,  rolled  up  their  sleeves, 
and  went  to  work  to  hammer  their  own  way 
through  four,  six,  nine  years  of  study  well  put 
down.  They  were  self-reliant,  independent,  of 
good  fibre,  and  afraid  of  no  honest  work.  Arti- 
sans, mechanics,  gardeners,  teachers,  enough  to 
man  all  the  useful  industries.  In  the  class  of  '59, 
for  example,  of  the  forty-eight  who  entered  three- 
fifths  of  us  paid  our  own  way  from  first  to  last. 
We  were  all  voters  when  we  entered,  except  one 
man  and  the  eight  ladies.  Of  course  I  don't  know 
whether  they  were  old  enough  to  vote  or  not, 
but   they   all    knew  enough. 

Out  of  this  class  of  mature  men  and  women 
went  forth  a  regiment  of  school-teachers  every 
winter.  They  went  near  and  far — in  the  State  and 
into  neighboring  States,  pushing  even  south  of 
*'  Mason  and  Dixon's  line."  Professor  Peck,  who 
some  way  kept  tally,  reported  that  about  five  hun- 
dred  schools  were  furnished  with  teachers  from 


THE    THIRD  DECADE.  211 

Oberlin  in  one  winter.  They  taught  school  and 
"  boarded  round." 

And  the}^  went  as  propagandists^  every  one  of 
them,  into  their  schools  and  into  the  homes  of  the 
people  ;  whatever  was  peculiar  to  Oberlin  took 
root  wherever  they  went.  Sunday-schools,  prayer- 
meetings,  and  churches  sprang  up  in  the  districts 
where  they  taught,  and  if  record  could  now  be 
made,  it  would  doubtless  appear  that  the  Union 
armies  found  there  good  recruiting  grounds  whence 
to  fill  up  the  decimated  ranks,  when  the  time  for 
the  deliverance  of  the  slave  had  fully  come. 

The  close  of  the  third  decade  saw  the  anti- 
slavery  struggle  made  national,  and  the  slave-mon- 
gers' war  of  rebellion  well  begun.  In  this,  as  in 
the  conflict  of  ideas  and  moral  opinions  that 
brought  in  the  sword,  Oberlin  played  a  part  of 
w^hich  her  children  need  never  be  ashamed.  The 
spirit  of  self-sacrifice  rose  with  the  time,  and  there 
was  no  call  for  soldiers  that  was  not  responded  to 
here.  The  question  was  amusingly  asked,  "  Where 
is  Oberlin  now  ?  She  brought  this  trouble  on  the 
land  ;  w^hat  will  she  do  in  it  ?"  The  seven  or  eight 
hundred  who  from  first  to  last  went  from  classes 
here  into  the  Union  army,  gave  abundant  answer. 

They  need  no  mention  here  to-day.  Only  this 
jubilee  would  not  be  well  kept  without  mention  of 
them 

When  the  war  was  over,  the  Union  saved,  and 
the  slave  free,  an  unexpected  question  arose,  not 
among  Oberlin  men,  indeed,  but  abroad  in  the  land, 
by  those,  perhaps,  whose  wish  was  father  to  the 


2 1 2  0 BE  RUN  J  UBILEE. 

thought,  *'  What  will  become  of  Oberlin  now  ? 
The  slaves  are  free ;  there  are  colleges  enough 
without  her:  she  has  nothing  more  to  do?"  But 
it  soon  appeared  that  the  part  Oberlin  had  taken 
in  letting  the  oppressed  go  free  had  only  been  in- 
cidental to  her  life  and  work.  The  old  "  Oberlin 
covenant"  begins,  "■  Lamenting  the  degeneracy  of 
the  Church,  and  the  deplorable  condition  of  our 
perishing  world."  The  Church  of  Christ  is,  in- 
deed, not  degenerate,  but  the  condition  of  the 
world  is  still  deplorable,  though  the  slaves  are  free; 
and  the  work  begun  here  when  that  covenant  was 
made  is  not  done :  Oberlin  is  here  to  stay. 

But  the  place  is  not  the  college,  nor  3^et  are 
money  and  good  buildings  with  endowments  a 
college.  The  main  thing  for  Oberlin  now  is  that 
the  line  of  men  who  laid  foundations  here  be  per- 
petnated.  Shortly  before  he  laid  down  his  work 
I  heard  Professor  Finney  say  to  his  class,  *'  You 
are  young  men ;  we  are  old.  We  have  taken  the 
world  as  far  as  we  can  take  it ;  you  must  take  it  on 
from  where  we  leave  it,  and  God  expects  you  to 
do  better  by  it  than  we  have  done."  If  there  are 
such  men  here  in  unbroken  succession — men  of 
the  mind  and  heart  and  spirit  to  follow  Mahan  and 
Finney,  Peck  and  Allen  and  Cowles,  Morgan  and 
Dascomb,  and  the  Fairchilds,  and  others  like 
them,  then  this  will  still  be  Oberlin  College  through 
the  coining  decade. 

It  provokes  a  quiet  laugh,  if  nothing  worse,  in 
an  Oberlin  man  of  the  third  decade  to  have  it  said 
to   him,  as  he  does,  ''From   Oberlin,   eh?       How 


THE    THIRD  DECADE.  213 

Oberlin  has  changed !"  when  he  knows  that  the 
world  is  simply  coming  to  Oberlin. 

It  would  not  be  true  to  say  there  has  been  no 
change  here.  There  has  been.  But  it  is  the 
change  that  comes  of  stead}-,  wholesome  growth. 
There  has  been  no  "  new  departure  "  here.  The 
only  thing  at  all  like  it  occurred  when  the  first 
Christian  family  pitched  tent  under  the  elm  tree 
yonder.  Oberlin  is  not  afraid  of  ''  new  departures!' 
She  keeps  her  eyes  wide  open  for  all  such  as  may 
be  called  for  by  the  '*  new  light  to  break  forth  " 
from  both  God's  word  and  his  works  continually ; 
and  this  removes  both  occasion  and  opportunity 
for  them  (Synod  of  Mich,  and  Olivet  College). 
Oberlin  College  is  not  hitched  to  the  last  end  of 
any  old  confession  of  faith.  Oberlin  Theo.  Sem. 
cannot  be  bound,  not  even  for  sake  of  great  en- 
dowment, to  stop  a  hundred  years  with  any  doc- 
trinal formula  the  present  generation  can  make.  If 
Oberlin  takes  the  world  on  from  where  the  men 
who  have  gone  before  left  it,  she  will  be  ahead  of 
all  '*  new  departures."  They  come  only  where  men 
have  been  stopping  awhile.  When  they  start  up 
again,  it  is  necessarily  somewhat  at  random,  at 
which  some  laugh,  and  others  are  afraid.  There 
is  no  danger.  They  will  find  themselves  after 
awhile.  But  the  spirit  of  truth  is  continually  lead- 
ing men  more  and  more  into  all  truth,  and  it  is 
better,  everyway,  to  follow  him  without  stopping. 

And  this  will  we  do,  are  doing.  We  come  back 
here  after  ten,  twenty,  thirty  years,  and  closest 
scrutiny  gives  us  no  occasion  to  open  the  way  for 


2 1 4  O BERLIN  J  UBILEE. 

the  tart  rejoinder  of  the  preacher,  **  Say  not  thou» 
what  is  the  cause  that  the  former  days  were  better 
than  these  ?  for  thou  dost  not  inquire  wisely  con- 
cerning this."  We  have  found  here  what  we  left, 
with  what  more  the  world  has  called  for.  We  see 
here  a  Christian  Conservatory  of  Music,  a  Chris- 
tian College,  and  a  Christian  Theological  Semi- 
nary :  a  Natural  Sisterhood :  a  college  of  men  among 
men.  We  go  back  to  our  work  cheerful  in  the 
faith  that  it  will  continue  to  stand  here,  untram- 
melled save  by  the  wants  of  men  and  the  call  of 
God. 


THE  FOURTH  DECADE. 

BY   REV.    R.   T.   CROSS,  '6/, 
Denver,  Col. 

I  THINK  I  can  say  that  I  come  from  the  oldest 
part  of  our  country.  One  of  our  little  towns  out 
in  the  Rocky  Mountains,  is  this  week  celebrating" 
the  three  hundred  and  thirty-third  aniversary  of 
its  settlement  by  Europeans.  Although  I  do  not 
live  in  Santa  Fe  and  am  not  authorized  to  do  so, 
yet  I  venture  to  bring  to  this  young  college  in  this 
young  town  the  congratulations  of  the  younger 
college  in  that  older  town. 

I  ought  to  know  something  about  the  Fourth 
Decade,  for  during  nearly  four  years  of  it  I  was  a 
student  in  the  college  department,  and  during  the 
last  five  years  I  was  back  in  the  Preparatory  de- 
partment, while  I  kept  one  eye  all  the  time  on  the 
Theological  department,  and  the  other  on  the 
Ladies'  department — though  I  never  belonged  to 
either. 

The  Fourth  Decade — to  begin  with  less  im- 
portant  matters — witnessed  many  changes  in  the 
college  buildings.  Colonial  Hall  and  the  old 
Ladies'  Hall  disappeared,  or  were  moved  and 
metamorphosed  into  dwelling-houses.  I  hold  in 
my  hand  a  relic  that  I  have  preserved  for  years, 
and  wish  now  to  put  into  the  Museum  of  Antiqui- 
ties which  is  being  formed.     It  is  the  handle  of  the 


2l6  OB E RUN  JUBILEE. 

door  bell  of  the  old  Ladies'  Hall.  Many  ot  you, 
as  well  as  myself,  have  pulled  it  with  a  trembling 
hand  and  palpitating  heart  as  you  contemplated 
the  possibility  of  being  ushered  into  that  old  recep- 
tion-room, to  find  the  young  lady  you  wanted 
visiting  with  a  handsomer  young  man.  French 
Hall  and  Society  Hall  were  built  in  1867  and  1868. 
The  new  Ladies'  Hall  was  finished  and  occupied 
in  1865.  Council  Hall  was  mainly  built  in  1873. 
During  this  decade  also  the  soldier's  monument 
was  erected,  the  Town  Hall,  the  Hotel,  the  Second 
Church,  and  the  Public  School  building. 

The  students  of  the  fourth  decade  did  not  help 
clear  the  ground  on  which  Oberlin  stands,  but  one 
day  in  the  summer  of  1864,  recitations  were  sus- 
pended and  the  students  turned  out  in  force  to  help 
clear  the  ground  where,  for  decades  and  centuries 
to  come,  Oberlin  was  to  lay  away  the  remains  of 
her  precious  dead.  At  noon  the  ladies  brought 
out  refreshments  and  we  spent  the  afternoon  most 
pleasantly,  little  thinking  that  some  of  us  would 
bury  our  dead  in  the  very  ground  over  which  w^e 
so  lightly  trod  that  day. 

The  fourth  decade  witnessed  many  changes  in 
the  college  faculty.  Professors  Mead,  Perry, 
Rider,  Shurtleff,  Barrows,  Smith,  Steele  and  Rice, 
Mrs.  Johnston  and  others  were  added,  and  Prof. 
J.  H.  Fairchild  was  promoted  to  the  Presidency. 
A  crowd  of  us  college  boys  serenaded  him  after 
his  election,  and  I  fear  we  trod  down  some  (  f  the 
flowers  in  his  front  yard.  Professors  Penfield, 
Allen,  Steele,  Peck,  Principal  Fairchild,  Mrs.  Das- 


THE  FOURTH  DECADE.  21/ 

comb  and  Pres.  Finney  retired  from  the  Faculty. 
The  latter  also  resigned  the  the  pastorate  of  the 
First  Church,  which  he  had  held  for  thirty-seven 
years.  The  venerable  forms  of  Mr.  Hill  and  Mr. 
Wyett  disappeared  from  the  treasurer's  office. 
Professors  Perry  and  Peck  died,  the  latter  in 
Hayti,  where  he  had  gone  as  United  States 
Minister. 

During  this  decade  there  were  several  destruc- 
tive fires  in  Oberlin,  at  some  of  which  I  have  a 
lively  remembrance  of  doing  some  hard  work. 

After  much  discussion  Alpha  Zeta  society  was 
organized. 

Ten  years  ago  this  month  my  brother,  who  had 
come  from  Iowa  to  visit  me  in  a  severe  sickness, 
came  into  my  room  one  day  and  told  me  that  he 
had  been  talking  with  an  old  Oberlin  student  who 
told_^him  confidentially — it  was  a  sort  of  secret  then 
— that  he  had  been  experimenting  and  had  dis- 
covered a  way  by  which  musical  notes  could  be 
sent  over  the  telegraph  wire.  That  was  the  begin- 
ning of  the  telephone,  the  discovery  of  which  is  one 
of  the  great  events  of  this  century,  an  event  whose 
nerve-center  Oberlin  was  permitted  to  touch,  and 
which  in  its  turn  has  touched  Oberlin  in  one  of  its 
most  vital  nerve-centers,  as  the  college  treasurer 
could  doubtless  testify. 

Oberlin's  historic  Sunday-school,  which  num- 
bered seven  or  eight  hundred,  was  harmoniously 
divided,  a  division  regretted  by  many  at  the  time, 
but  justified  by  the  results.  It  was  not  divided, 
however,  until  after  the  death  in   1867  of  J.  M. 


2l8  OBERLIiV  JUBILEE. 

Fitch,  who  had  superintended  it  for  twenty-four 
years. 

In  1869  the  Theological  department  came  so 
near  dying,  that  the  propriety  of  giving  it  up  and 
uniting  with  the  Chicago  Seminary  was  seriously 
discussed.  But  its  friends  would  not  let  it  die. 
With  the  coming  of  Prof.  Mead  that  same  year, 
and,  mainly  through  his  efforts,  the  building  of 
Council  Hall,  it  entered  on  a  new  career  of  pros- 
perity and  usefulness. 

The  fourth  decade  was  a  period  of  revivals,  and 
of  continued  revival  interest,  perhaps  not  pre-emi- 
nently so,  but  as  much  so  as  any  of  the  decades. 
They  were  the  last  of  the  remarkably  sustained 
revivals  under  the  preaching  of  Prof.  Finney,  who 
had  set  his  heart  on  seeing  another  wave  of  salva- 
tion sweep  over  the  school  and  town  before  he 
died.  The  most  remarkable  revival  was  in  the 
winter  of  1866  and  1867,  when  a  great  work  was 
done  among  the  business  men  of  Oberlin.  At  one 
time  there  were  about  fifty  prayer  meetings  a 
week  in  the  place. 

At  times  hundreds  of  inquirers  would  fill  all  the 
body  seats  of  the  First  Church.  Those  who  were 
present  will  not  soon  forget  that  scene  in  the  First 
Church  on  the  second  Sunday  of  March,  1867, 
when  one  hundred  and  eight  persons  united  with 
the  church,  the  largest  number  that  ever  united 
with  it  at  one  time.  In  July,  1852,  105  had  united 
at  one  time.  During  four  years  of  the  fourth 
decade  it  was  my  privilege  to  lead  the  Young 
People's  Prayer  Meeting.    The  opportunity  to  rise 


THE  FOURTH  DECADE.  219 

for  prayers  was  given  at  almost  every  meeting  each 
year,  and  never  but  once,  I  think,  without  a 
response. 

During  this  decade  OberHn  sent  out  a  large 
number  of  her  choicest  sons  and  daughters  to 
labor  among  the  freedmen.  What  those  mission- 
aries did  for  the  blacks  and  endured  from  the 
whites  of  the  South  would  make  one  of  the  most 
interesting  chapters  in  Oberhn's  history.  It  was 
true  missionary  work.  They  had  had  the  best 
preparation  for  it,  and  living  or  dead,  their  works 
do  follow  them. 

But  the  most  important  features  of  the  fourth 
decade  I  have  reserved  to  the  last.  At  the  begin- 
ing  of  the  decade,  and  again  near  the  close,  events 
occurred,  one  of  national,  and  the  other  of  denomi- 
national interest,  and  which  made  it  a  triumphant 
decade  for  Oberlin.  The  first  event  was  the  abo- 
lition of  slavery,  for  which  she  had  toiled  and 
taught,  and  prayed,  and  for  which  some  of  her 
noblest  sons  had  laid  down  their  lives.  At  the 
very  beginning  of  the  decade  came  Lincoln's 
emancipation  proclamation,  but  the  war  continued 
twenty  eight  months  longer.  Classmates  and 
tablemates  talked  daily  of  bloody  battles,  of  defeats 
and  victories,  of  who  had  enlisted,  who  was 
wounded,  and  who  had  died.  Still  more  brave 
men  laid  themselves  on  the  altar.  In  1864  the 
hundred  days  compan}^  of  students  went  to 
Washington,  Avhere  some  of  them  died  in  the  hos- 
pital or  on  the  skirmish  field.  Then  came  the  end, 
and    the  soldiers   came    home,    among   them    the 


220  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

shattered  remnants  of  glorious  Company  C.  Who 
that  was  present  can  forget  the  rejoicing  of  April 
14th?  Who  can  forget  the  illuminations  of  that 
night,  or  the  great  bonfire  in  Tappan  Square, 
around  which  four  thousand  people  were  gathered. 
And  who  can  forget  the  awful  shock  of  the  next 
morning  when  news  came  of  Lincoln's  assassina- 
tion ;  all  day  it  rained  ;  recitations  were  suspended. 
All  day  we  walked  the  streets  aimlessly,  scarcely 
recognizing  our  friends  when  we  met  them.  All 
day  long  the  college  bell  tolled.  Through  blood 
and  tears  the  victory  came,  but  it  came  to  stay. 

By  constitutional  amendment  the  slave  was 
made  forever  free  on  American  soil,  and  given  the 
rights  of  a  citizen,  and  Oberlin,  who  had  paid  her 
full  shall  share  of  the  price  of  victor}^,  rejoiced,  not 
boastfully,  but  with  humble,  heartfelt,  tearful 
thanksgiving  to  God.  She  had  been  among  the 
earliest  on  the  field.  She  had  never  quailed  or 
taken  a  backward  step.     She  had  had  the  rare 

" instinct  that  can  tell 

That  God  is  on  the  field 
When  He  is  most  invisible." 

And  as  she  was  victorious  in  this  matter  of  apphed 
Christianity,  this  battle  for  human  rights,  so  before 
the  decade  closed  she  was  victorious  in  the  theo- 
logical warfare,  that  she  had  been  waging,  or  that 
others  had  been  waging  against  her.  The  Chris- 
tian world  saw  that  a  Christianity  so  practical,  a 
practice  so  Christ-like,  could  not  be  far  wrong  in 
theory,  and  that  though  they  might  not  accept  all 
her  theories,  they  could  recognize  them  as  being 


THE  FOURTH  DECADE.  221 

within  the  pale  of  orthodoxy,  and  as  not  so 
awfully  dangerous  after  all.  The  climax  of  her 
theological  victory,  came  when  the  National  Coun- 
cil, representing  the  Congregational  Churches  of 
United  States,  east  and  west,  old  school  and  new 
school,  held  its  first  regular  meeting  at  Oberlin,  in 
November,  1871,  and  laid  with  impressive,  yet 
simple  ceremonies  the  corner-stone  of  Council 
Hall.  There  had  been  a  melting  of  prejudices 
before  ;  prejudice  existed  after  that  time.  It  yet 
lingers  in  dark  corners  and  in  dark  hearts.  But 
when  that  whole  council  rose  to  their  feet  to  honor 
Pres.  Finney,  a  man  who  years  before  had  been 
refused  the  privilege  of  sitting  as  corresponding 
member  in  a  joint  convention  of  Presbyterians  and 
Congregationalists,  and  when  the  moderator  of 
that  council,  who  is  now  in  heaven,  uttered  those 
memorable  words:  '■^  We  stand  upon  the  grave  of 
buried  prejudice^'  Oberlin  rejoiced,  for  she  felt 
that  she  had  bravely,  and  without  bitterness  on 
her  part,  fought  and  fairly  won  another  great 
victory,  all  the  greater  because  her  enemies  were 
made  her  friends. 

And  so,  victorious  in  her  contest  for  human 
rights,  important  phases  of  which  were  found  in 
her  efforts  to  secure  the  joint  education  of  the 
sexes  and  the  races,  and  victorious  in  her  contest 
for  a  better  and  more  reasonable  statement  of  the 
truths  of  Theology,  she  closed  her  forty  years  of 
trials  and  temptations  and  conflicts,  and  lor  her 
fourth  decade  I  think  I  may  fairly  claim  the  desig- 
nation, Oberlin  Triumphant. 


THE  FIFTH  DECADE. 

BY   DR.    DUDLEY    P.    ALLEN,  '75? 
Cleveland,  Ohio. 

It  is  with  no  slight  degree  of  hesitation  that  I 
venture  to  speak  a  word  before  you  to-day  on 
behalf  of  the  graduate-s  from  Oberlin  during  the 
last  ten  3^ears.  For  this  I  am  ill  fitted  both  b}^  na- 
tural endowment,  and  also  by  profession.  For  the 
fulfilment  of  such  a  task  one  naturally  turns  to  the 
ministerial  or  legal  professions,  finding  here  men 
who  are  accustomed  to,  and  I  suspect,  fond  of 
public-speaking.  In  the  medical  profession,  how- 
ever, are  men  who,  like  soldiers,  are  mighty  not  in 
words,  but  in  deeds;  men  who  do  not  preach  but 
praotice.  Since,  however,  members  of  the  medical 
profession  have  been  so  rare  among  the  graduates 
of  Oberlin,  I  suppose  it  has  been  considered 
proper  to  display  one  during  this  great  jubilee  as 
a  curiosity. 

It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  as  much  can  be  said 
of  the  achievements  of  the  graduates  during  the 
last  ten  years  as  of  those  who  have  been  longer 
separated  from  college  walls. 

In  quiet  times,  such  as  those  among  which  we 
have  lived,  there  has  been  no  great  opportunity  for 
the  accomplishment  of  that  which  should  gain  us 
extended  reputation.  The  first  ten  years  of  a 
man's  life  are  devoted  not  so  much  to  the  perform- 


THE  FIFTH  DECADE.  223 

aiice  of  great  achievements  as  to  preparations  for 
the  duties  of  later  life,  and  the  formation  of  char- 
acter; and  if  it  can  be  shown  that  the  recent 
graduates  and  present  students  of  Oberlin  have 
been  as  thorough  in  their  preparation  for  their  life- 
w^ork  and  are  possessed  of  as  noble  purposes  as  the 
students  who  have  preceded  them,  you  may  be 
well  satisfied  that  the  good  work  of  Oberlin  is  con- 
tinuing, and  will  continue.  I  shall  not  detain  you 
long  with  what  1  have  to  say,  since  it  is  not  fitting 
that  those  who  are  youngest  should  occupy  much 
of  your  time.  But  if  we  say  little  you  must  not 
think  it  is  because  our  affection  for  our  Alma  Mater 
is  not  as  strong  as  that  of  those  who  have  preceded 
us.  Affection  is  not  measured  by  the  quantity  of 
words  spoken.  I  remember  once,  while  living  in 
a  hospital,  being  roused  at  night,  and  finding  in 
the  accident-room  a  man  whose  skull  had  been 
terribly  crushed  while  working  on  one  of  our  large 
ocean  steamships. 

The  surgeon  attempted  to  do  what  he  could  to 
save  the  poor  man's  life,  when  a  fellow-workman, 
a  stout  man,  pushing  the  nurses  and  assistants 
aside,  said:  "Why  make  the  man  suffer  further? 
Let  him  die  in  peace !"  The  man  was  silenced,  the 
operation  was  performed,  and  the  patient  was  car- 
ried to  the  ward,  where  for  days  he  laid  insensible. 
At  length  consciousness  returned,  and  I  used  to 
visit  him  daily,  finding  him  alone  in  his  little  room. 
One  morning  I  found  him  not  alone.  With  him 
was  his  beautiful  young  wife,  whom  he  had  left  in* 
Ireland  shortl}^  after  their  marriage,  and  had  come 


224  OBERLIN  JUBILEE, 

to  America  to  earn  money  enough  to  bring  her 
over  to  him,  and  on  his  breast  was  their  first-born 
child,  whom  he*  had  never  seen  before.  As  they 
sat  there,  looking  into  each  other's  eyes,  they  never 
spoke  a  word ;  and  every  morning,  as  I  lound  the 
young  wife  there  on  her  visit,  I  never  heard  them 
speak.  Do  you  suppose  it  was  because  they  had 
no  love  for  one  another  that  they  were  not  telling 
it,  and  so,  if  we  who  have  most  recently  become 
attached  to  Oberlin  say  less  than  those  who  have 
loved  her  longer,  you  must  not  think  it  is  because 
our  attachment  is  less  strong.  Since  the  war 
has  ended,  slavery  been  abolished,  and  the  great 
questions  which  seemed  fitted  to  divide  our  union 
have  been  settled,  those  things  which  have  attracted 
our  attention  have  been  less  intense,  though  of  as 
vital  importance  to  our  country. 

The  question  of  temperance,  which  is  growing 
into  such  vast  importance,  has,  during  the  few 
years  past,  met  no  uncertain  support  in  Oberlin, 
aud  the  sentiment  nurtured  among  the  students 
here  may  be  as  pregnant  of  good  to  our  country 
as  any  principle  which  has  received  the  advocacy 
of  Oberlin  hitherto.  By  this  sentiment  I  do  not 
mean  that  radical  untenable  ground  that  the 
use  of  alcohol  is  intrinsically  wicked,  but  that 
better,  that  more  efficient  sentiment  held  by  the 
best  minds  in  Oberhn,  that  its  use  is  productive  of 
more  evils  than  benefits.  We  would  ground  the 
work  for  temperance  upon  that  foundation-stone  of 
Oberhn,  *'  benevolence,"  and  thus  advocate  the 
cause  of  temperance,  believing  that  since  the  use 


THE  FIFTH  DECADE.  225 

of  alcohol  endangers  so  many  interests  and  wrecks 
so  many  destinies,  for  all  to  abrogate  its  use  is  but 
benevolent. 

There  is  one  other  cause  that  has  received  much 
attention  during  the  ten  years  just  past,  and  that 
is  the  cause  of  foreign  missions.  Hitherto  the 
efforts  of  Oberlin  have  been  directed  especially 
toward  the  elevation  of  the  colored  race  in  our 
own  country,  in  the  West  Indies  and  in  Africa. 
Our  laborers  have  also  followed  the  camp-fires  of 
our  advancing  civilization  in  the  home  missionary 
fields.  While  these  causes  still  are,  and  must  con- 
tinue, as  full  of  interest  to  the  students  of  Oberlin 
as  ever,  more  interest  and  activity  has  been  awak- 
ened in  the  foreign  missionary  field.  Workers 
have  gone  to  South  America,  to  Africa,  to  Asia, 
and  the  islands  of  the  sea,  but  that  which  has  taken 
more  firm  hold  upon  the  heart  of  Oberlin  is  that 
little  band,  weak  in  numbers,  strong  in  faitk,  which 
has  set  foot  upon  the  shores  of  China,  seeking,  if 
possible,  to  turn  that  great  nation  from  heathenism 
to  righteousness.  The  cause  is  a  vast  one,  com- 
mensurate with  our  strongest  faith.  To  further  it 
every  energy  will  be  taxed  to  its  ^tmost ;  but 
should  it  succeed,  it  will  do  more  to  perpetuate 
the  name  of  Oberlin  than  any  labors  which  have 
preceded  it.  Co-education,  freedom,  union,  may 
have  existed  so  long  that  the  struggles  which  gave 
them  birth  may  have  fallen  into  comparative  ob- 
livion when  the  missionary  enterprises,  inaugur- 
ated in  Oberlin,  may  be  bearing  their  richest 
harvest.      England    may   have   become,    as  when 


226  OBERLIN  JUBILEE, 

Augustine  lound  her,  "  a  single  naked  fisherman, 
washing  his  nets  in  the  river  of  the  ten  thousand 
masts,"  the  vast  towers  of  the  Brooklyn  bridge  may 
be  disturbed  only  b}'  the  waves  rippling  at  their 
crumbling  base,  when  in  the  Orient  the  name  of 
Oberlin  shall  be  loved  and  honored  as  we  honor  it 
to-day,  and  her  ancient  site  sought  out  as  is  now 
the  birth-place  of  Saul  of  Tarsus,  that  first  great 
foreign  missionary. 

Could  Elijah  stand  again  on  Carmel,  as  in  the 
days  of  old,  he  would  bid  his  servant  go  up  and 
look  not  towards  the  western  but  towards  the 
eastern  sea,  and  there  he  might  discern  a  cloud  not 
bigger  than  a  man's  hand,  which  we  hope  may  in- 
crease until  it  fills  the  whole  heavens,  and  the 
knowledge  of  Jehovah,  which  began  on  the  plains 
of  Asia,  shall  have  traversed  the  globe,  and  found 
again  its  early  home.  Then  shall  be  remembered 
not  those  "  morning  drum-beats  which  encircle  the 
whole  earth  daily  with  one  continuous  and  un- 
broken strain  of  the  marshal  airs  of  England,"  but 
rather  that  other,  that  noble  strain  sweeter  than 
marshal  notes,  grander  than  drum-beats,  dear  to 
every  heart. in  Oberlin — 

"  Must  Jesus  bear  the  cross  alone, 
And  all  the  world  go  free  ? 
No,  there's  a  cross  for  every  one, 
And  there's  a  cross  for  me." 

I  must  not  detain  you  longer.  If  the  things  of 
which  I  have  spoken  are  in  their  youth  rather  than 
in  their  maturity,  they  are  like  those  for  whom 


THE  FIFTH  DECADE.  227 

they  have  been  spoken  ;  but  they  are,  nevertheless, 
worthy  of  our  consideration  and  our  aid.  As  Ruth, 
returning  to  Judea,  said  to  Naomi,  "  Thy  people 
shall  be  my  people,  and  thy  God  my  God,"  so  as 
we  come  back  with  you  here  to-day,  we  would 
have  you  know  that  the  students  of  Oberlin  are 
still  actuated  by  as  strong  principle  as  of  old,  and 
if  there  are  any  here  to-day  who  are  still  to  become 
graduates  of  Oberlin,  we  would  all  bid  you  to  hold 
fast  to  that  principle  of  obligation  to  God  and  man 
which  is  foremost  in  our  faith,  cherishing  the 
truths  that  are  being  taught  you  by  those  beloved 
teachers  whose  hairs  are  fast  becoming  silvered 
with  the  reflected  glories  of  their  coming  transfig- 
uration, for  it  ought  not  to  displease  us  that  we 
are  "  called  amidst  the  tumult  and  dazzle  of  this 
busy  life  to  listen  for  the  few  voices  and  watch  for 
the  few  lamps  that  God  has  toned  and  lighted  to 
charm  and  to  guide  us,  that  we  ma}^  not  learn 
their  sweetness  by  their  silence  nor  their  light  by 
their  decay." 


ANTI-SLAVERY  REUNION. 

Second  Church,  July  3D,  7.30  p.m. 
ADDRESS   OF   GEN.  P.  C.  HAYES. 

In  discussing  the  relation  to  the  anti-slavery 
cause  of  the  infantry  who  served  in  the  grand 
Union  army  during  the  late  civil  war,  I  shall  not 
draw  any  distinction  between  the  infantry  branch 
of  that  army  and  the  two  other  branches — the  cav- 
alr}^  and  the  artillery.  These  three  branches  con- 
stituted but  one  army — the  grandest,  the  noblest, 
the  most  heroic,  the  most  patriotic  and  the  most  un- 
selfish army  that  this  world  ever  saw — and  it  would 
be  unjust  to  them  and  unpardonable  in  me  were 
I  to  endeavor  in  any  respect  to  exalt  one  branch 
over  another.  Each  branch  did  its  duty  faithfully, 
earnestly  and  heroically,  and  no  one  is  deserving  of 
any  higher  praise  than  the  others.  Hence,  what  I 
shall  say  will  have  reference  to  the  entire  Union 
soldiery,  who  fought  to  put  down  the  rebellion  and 
to  save  the  nation's  life. 

In  endeavoring  to  ascertain  the  relation  of  the 
Union  soldiery  to  the  anti-slavery  cause,  it  will  be 
necessary  to  consider  for  a  momont  the  training 
which  that  soldiery  had  received  as  private  citizens 
in  their  homes  throughout  the  North  for  some 
years  prior  to  the  war.  The  men  who  made  up  the 
Union  army  were  generally  men  who  read,  who 
thought,  and  who  were  careful  observers  of  what 


ANTI-SLAVERY  REUNIOI^,  229 

went  on  around  them.  For  years  many  of  them 
had  read  anti-slavery  documents.  For  years  they 
had  watched  the  aggressive  tendency  and  the  in- 
tolerent  spirit  of  the  slave  aristocracy  of  the  South. 
Many  of  them  had  seen  that  aristocracy  lay  hold  of 
Texas  and  wage  war  with  Mexico  for  the  sole  pur- 
pose of  extending  slavery.  They  had  seen  them, 
after  they  had  entered  into  that  solemn  compact 
known  as  the  Missouri  Compromise,  tear  that  com- 
pact to  tatters  and  trample  it  under  their  unhal- 
lowed feet,  simply  because  they  wanted  more  ter- 
ritory wherein  to  plant  their  pet  institution,  and 
thus  increase  their  political  power.  They  had  seen 
them  set  at  naught  the  National  Constitution,  pass 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  and  had  not  only  beheld 
the  proud  Southerner,  under  the  protection  of  that 
law,  bring  his  slaves  with  impunity  into  the  free 
States  of  the  North  ;  but  they  themselves  had  been 
compelled,  like  dogs,  to  hunt  down  the  poor  fugi- 
tive from  bondage  and  return  him  to  his  master. 
They  had  read  of  the  cold-blooded  murder  of  Love- 
joy,  of  the  inhuman,  murderous  and  damnable 
efforts  of  the  slave-power  to  force  slavery  upon  the 
people  of  Kansas,  of  the  barbarous  treatment  of 
Anthon}^  Burns,  of  the  shameful  hanging  of  old 
John  Brown,  and  of  the  cruel  and  heartless  impris- 
onment of  those  noble  men  of  Oberlin  who  had  the 
courage  to  defy  the  slave-power,  and,  in  the-  very 
face  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  rescue  a  fellow- 
being  from  the  clutches  of  that  power,  and  give 
him  his  freedom.  They  had  from  their  earliest 
youth  participated  in  the  annual  celebrations  of  our 


230  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

national  holiday,  the  Fourth  of  July,  had  drank  in 
the  eloquent  words  of  patriotic  and  liberty-loving 
men,  and  had  heard  that  grand  document,  our 
Declaration  of  Independence,  read  so  often  that 
they  had  learned  by  heart  these  sublime  senti- 
ments :  "  We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident : 
that  all  men  are  created  equal,"  and  that  "  govern- 
ments derive  all  their  just  powers  from  the  con- 
sent of  the  governed."  Besides  all  this,  and  above 
all  this,  many  of  these  men  had  knelt  as  little  chil- 
dren at  the  family  altar,  and  had  listened  to  earnest 
prayers,  sent  up  to  Heaven  from  pure  hearts,  asking 
that  the  slave  might  be  set  at  liberty,  and  that  our 
land  might  become  in  fact  as  well  as  in  profession 
a  land  of  freedom. 

Being  thus  educated,  they  had  come  to  love  free- 
dom and  hate  slavery.  With  such  training  they 
were  prepared,  when  the  time  came,  to  strike  hands 
with  the  old-line  Abolitionists,  who  had  labored  in 
tfie  anti-slavery  cause  for  years,  and  to  help  them 
carry  on  their  work  to  a  successful  issue.  Perhaps 
very  few  or  them  thought  when  they  entered  the 
army  that  slavery  was  to  be  abolished  before  they 
were  mustered  out ;  yet  they  knew  that  slavery 
was  the  cause  of  the  war — that  the  slave-power  had 
inaugurated  the  war,  and  that  this  power  must  be 
crushed,  whether  slavery  was  abolished  or  not,  be- 
fore the  war  could  end.  Hence  it  was  that,  when 
Abraham  Lincoln  had  been  elected  President  and 
the  Southern  people  had  inaugurated  rebellion  by 
firing  upon  the  nation's  flag,  these  men  rose  in  their 
might  and  their  manhood,  declaring  that  the  rebel- 


ANTI-SLAVERY  REUNION.  23 1 

Hon  must  be  put  down,  whatever  might  be  the  cost 
or  sacrifice. 

Many  of  us  who  are  here  present  remember  that 
grand  uprising.  As  we  sit  here  to-day  we  can  re- 
call the  stirring  scenes  which  transpired  all  over 
the  North  twenty-three  years  ago.  We  can  recall 
the  excitement  which  was  caused  when  the  news 
was  flashed  along  the  line  that  Fort  Sumter  had 
been  fired  upon.  We  can  remember  how  eagerly, 
yet  thoughtfully,  we  read  President  Lincoln's 
proclamation,  calling  for  75,000  volunteers;  how 
quickly  that  proclamation  aroused  the  whole  North 
to  a  realization  of  the  fact  that  the  Union  could 
only  be  preserved  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  and 
how  readily,  once  realizing  this  fact,  our  hitherto 
peaceful  and  industrious  people  began  to  enroll 
themselves  as  soldiers  of  the  Republic,  bringing  to 
the  altar  of  their  common  country  that  most  precious 
of  all  gifts,  their  own  heart's  blood.  An  army  of 
75,000  men  sprung  into  being  as  if  by  magic,  and 
was  quickl}^  hurried  to  the  field  of  conflict. 

But  treason  was  not  to  be  crushed  by  an  army 
of  such  insignificant  numbers.  More  men  were 
needed,  and  so  the  call  went  forth  for  500,000  addi- 
tional volunteers.  This  number  was  received  with- 
out delay.  Our  old  men,  our  young  men,  and  our 
middle-aged  men  rose  in  their  might,  determined 
to  defeat  and  drive  back  the  mighty  hosts  of  trea- 
son which  threatened  to  destroy  the  constitution, 
crush  liberty,  and  to  take  the  life  of  the  nation  it- 
self. In  the  face  of  this  threatened  danger  old 
party  lines  gave  way.   The  people,  without  regard 


232  OBERLIN  JUBILEE, 

to  political  faith,  rallied  to  the  defence  of  the  old 
flag.  The  great  liberty-loving  North  looked  upon 
treason  as  a  crime,  and  were  resolved  to  put  it 
down.  The  ruling  sentiment  was  that  the  Union 
could  and  should  be  preserved,  and  in  obedience  to 
this  sentiment  the  500,000  additional  volunteers 
were  soon  on  their  way  to  the  front. 

But  even  this  number  was  not  enough.  The  re- 
bellion continued  to  gain  strength  every  day.  As 
the  war  went  on  the  South  grew  more  and  m-ore 
determined  to  succeed  in  their  effort  to  destroy  the 
government,  and  in  order  to  carry  out  this  deter- 
mination every  able-bodied  man  in  their  borders 
was  forced  into  the  army.  The  consequence  was 
that  the  Union  cause  demanded  more  men  and  ad- 
ditional sacrifices.  Mr.  Lincoln's  call  again  rang 
through  the  land  :  Send  me  300,000  more  volun- 
teers. This  call,  like  the  preceding,  was  heard  and 
obeyed.  The  patriotic  men  of  the  North  had  not 
yet  faltered,  and  they  did  not  falter  now.  With 
alacrity  and  enthusiasm  they  hastened  in  each 
State  to  fill  their  quotas,  and  soon  the  requisite 
300,000  volunteers,  with  brave  hearts  and  deter- 
mined wills,  started  for  the  front,  shouting  with 
one  united  voice :  "  We  are  coming.  Father  Abi-a- 
ham,  300,000  more." 

And  thus  the  great  North  kept  on,  filling  up  the 
ranks  of  the  army  as  fast  as  they  were  thinned  by 
disease  and  death,  until  at  last  treason  went  down, 
and  the  Union  was  saved.  Then  it  was  that  we 
stopped  to  count  the  cost  of  the  terrible  struggle. 
Then  it  was  that  we  found  that  between  the  15th 


ANTI-SLA  VER  V  RE  UNION.  233 

of  April,  1 861,  and  the  15th  of  May,  1865,  no  less 
than  2,688,523  men  had  been  enrolled  for  service 
in  the  armies  of  the  Union.  And  it  was  this  vast 
army  which  not  only  saved  the  nation's  life,  but 
which  wiped  out  slavery  at  the  point  of  the  bayo- 
net, and  atoned  for  that  great  national  sin  by  the 
blood  of  340,000  of  its  number,  who  went  down  to 
soldiers'  graves  during  that  mighty  struggle. 

These  men  had  learned  to  love  freedom  as  they 
enjoyed  it  at  the  North,  where  there  was  no  such 
thing  as  slavery,  and  where  they  had  free  schools, 
free  speech,  and  a  free  press.  They  had  learned  to 
hate  slavery  as  it  exhibited  itself  at  the  South  in 
all  its  hideous  and  brutal  deformity.  In  fact,  they 
were  anti-slavery  men  before  they  became  soldiers. 
I  do  not  mean  by  this  that  they  had  openly  de- 
clared themselves  as  anti-slavery  men  or  espoused 
the  anti-slavery  cause.  But  had  the  simple  ques- 
tion, separate  and  alone,  J  i vested  of  every  other 
consideration,  been  submitted  to  them  whether 
they  would  prefer  that  this  country  should  be 
dedicated  forever  to  freedom  or  to  slavery,  nine 
out  of  every  ten  of  them  would  have  declared  for 
freedom  and  against  slavery.  With  a  natural  love 
for  freedom,  and  an  educated  dislike  of  slavery, 
these  men  entered  the  army,  and  God  directed 
their  efforts  and  took  good  care  that  every  blow 
they  struck  should  weaken  the  institution  of  slavery. 
This  army  was  emphatically  God's  army,  and  He 
used  it  to  carry  out  His  purposes.  God  had  deter- 
mined to  wipe  out  slavery  in  this  country  by  hu- 
man agency.     Long  before  the  war  he  had  raised 


234  OBEKLIN  JUBILEE, 

up  a  body  of  fearless,  patriotic  and  liberty-loving 
men  in  the  North  who,  in  spite  of  hate,  of  persecu- 
tion and  of  personal  violence,  had  gone  bravely 
forward  and  done  noble  service  in  the  anti-slavery 
cause,  and  when  the  proper  time  came  he  raised 
up  the  grand  Union  army  to  take  up  that  cause 
and  carry  it  forward  to  success.  The  Union  sol- 
diery only  completed  what  the  old-line  Abolition- 
ists had  begun,  but  completed  it  in  a  way  that 
neither  the  soldiery  nor  the  Abolitionists  ex- 
pected. 

Thus  it  is  that,  when  we  consider  the  cause  for 
which  it  fought  and  the  results  accomplished,  as 
well  as  the  character  of  the  men  who  composed  it, 
our  arm}^  towers  pre-eminent  above  any  army  that 
ever  trod  this  earth.  Other  armies  have  been 
strong  and  patriotic  and  brave,  but  none  ever  con- 
tained such  a  large  proportion  of  intelligent,  noble, 
true,  patriotic  and  heroic  men  as  ours.  Other 
armies  have  won  great  and  important  victories, 
but  none  ever  won  such  great  and  important  vic- 
tories as  ours.  The  great  armies  of  the  world  have 
made  war  to  tear  down  and  to  destroy ;  our  army 
made  war  to  preserve,  build  up  and  perfect.  Other 
armies  have  made  war  to  enslave ;  ours  to  make 
free.  Other  armies  have  made  war  for  conquest, 
for  plunder  and  for  self-aggrandizement ;  ours  for 
humanity  t'he  world  over. 

We  admire  Abraham  Lincoln  because  he  proved 
himself  one  of  the  noblest  men  that  this  world  has 
ever  seen.  His  Emancipation  Proclamation  was 
the  grandest  document  ever  issued  by  the  execu- 


ANTI-SLAVERY  REUNION.  235 

tive  of  any  nation  ;  but  it  was  the  Union  soldiery 
who  prepared  the  way  for  that  Proclamation,  and 
it  was  the  Union  soldiery  who  enforced  that  Procla- 
mation after  it  was  issued.  It  was  the  Union  sol- 
diery who  made  it  possible  for  Abraham  Lincoln 
to  strike  the  fetters  from  the  limbs  of  the  three 
millions  of  slaves  in  this  country,  and  to  proclaim 
liberty  to  every  man,  woman  and  child  in  the  landc 
It  was  the  Union  soldiery  who  not  only  saved  the 
nation's  life,  but  who  gave  to  the  nation's  flag  a 
broader  and  nobler  meaning.  When  that  flag  was 
lowered  at  Sumter,  it  represented  the  doctrine  of 
the  old  European  kings,  which  the  slave-ocracy  of 
the  South  sought  to  enforce  in  this  country — that 
the  few  are  made  to  rule  and  the  many  to  serve. 
But  when,  after  the  war  was  over,  our  soldiers 
brought  that  flag  proudly  and  triumphantly  home, 
baptized  with  the  blood  of  their  fallen  comrades, 
it  was  the  flag  of  American  citizenship,  without  re- 
gard to  race  or  color,  of  equality  before  the  law,  of 
free  men  and  women  everywhere  throughout  the 
land. 

But  in  all  this  glorious  work  our  soldiers  were 
only  carrying  forward  what  had  been  so  nobly  be- 
gun by  those  who  labored  so  earnestly  and  faith- 
fully in  the  anti-slavery  cause  before  the  war.  Had 
it  not  been  for  these  devoted  workers,  who  did  so 
much  to  enlighten  the  public  conscience,  our  sol- 
diers would  not  have  been  what  they  were;  and 
had  it  not  been  for  the  soldiers  the  anti-slavery 
cause  would  not  have  triumphed  when  it  did.  In 
fact,  the  Abolitionists  and  the  soldiers  were  labor- 


23^  0 BERLIN  JUBILEE. 

ers  in  the  same  glorious  cause,  and  were  used  by 
God  as  His  instruments  in  ridding  this  land  of  the 
curse  of  slavery.  Each  did  his  work  w^ell ;  each 
labored,  not  for  himself,  but  for  others,  and  in 
recognition  of  the  grand  work  which  they  accom- 
plished, let  the  Abolitionist  and  the  soldier  pass 
hand  in  hand  down  the  ages,  equally  honored  by  a 
grateful  people,  as  patriots,  as  heroes,  and  as  lovers 
of  their  race. 

NARRATIVE  OF  PERSONAL  EXPERIENCE. 

BY    REV.   AMOS   DRESSER. 

On  the  first  day  of  July,  1835,  I  left  Cincinnati 
for  the  purpose  of  selling  the  "  Cottage  Bible,"  in 
order,  from  the  profits  of  the  sale,  to  raise  funds 
sufficient  to  enable  me  to  complete  my  education. 
The  largest  portion  of  my  books  was  sent  to  Nash- 
ville by  water. 

I  took  several  copies  of  the  Bible  with  me,  be- 
sides a  considerable  number  of  the  little  work, 
entitled  "  Six  Months  in  a  Convent."  In  packing 
them  into  my  barouche,  a  number  of  pamphlets 
and  papers  of  different  descriptions  were  used  to 
prevent  from  injury  by  rubbing,  intending  to  dis- 
tribute them  as  suitable  opportunities  should  pre- 
sent. Among  them  were  old  religious  newspapers, 
and  anti-slavery  publications,  numbers  of  the  Mis^ 
sionary  Herald,  temperance  almanacs,  etc.  At 
Danville,  Kentucky,  where  a  State  anti-slavery 
society  had  been  organized  some  months  before, 
and  where  the  subject  of  emancipation  seemed  to 
be  discussed  without   restraint,   besides  selling  a 


ANTI-SLAVERY  REUNION.  237 

large  number  of  my  books,  I  parted  with  a  large 
share  of  my  anti-slavery  publications.  In  travel- 
ing through  the  State,  I  distributed  most  of  my 
temperance  almanacs  and  other  books  above  men- 
tioned, including  a  few  tracts  on  anti-slavery, 
given  to  those  who  were  willing  to  receive  them. 
1  gave  none  of  these  to  any  person  of  color,  bond 
or  free,  nor  had  I  any  intention  of  doing  so. 

Near  Gallatin,  in  Sumner  County,  Tennessee,  I 
sold  a  copy  of  Rankin's  Letters  on  Slavery.  I 
arrived  at  Nashville  on  Saturday,  the  i8th  of  July, 
and  took  lodgings  at  the  Nashville  inn.  The 
young  man  who  accompanied  me,  in  bringing  into 
the  house  my  books  from  the  box  of  the  barouche, 
omitted  the  anti-slavery  tracts  and  other  pamph- 
lets. Their  being  overlooked  did  not  occupy  the 
attention  of  either  of  us,  and  on  Monday  morning 
the  barouche  was  taken  to  the  shop  of  Mr.  Stout 
to  be  repaired.  In  the  course  of  the  day,  Mr. 
Stout  remarked  to  his  workmen,  as  he  afterward 
informed  me,  that  as  I  came  from  Cincinnati,  per- 
haps I  was  an  Abolitionist.  On  this  one  of  them 
commenced  rummaging  my  carriage.  In  the  box 
he  found,  among  other  pamphlets,  a  February 
number  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Record,  with  a  cut 
representing  a  drove  of  slaves  chained,  the  two 
foremost  having  violins  on  which  they  were  play- 
ing, the  American  flag  waving  in  the  centre,  while 
the  slave-driver  with  his  whip  was  urging  on  the 
rear.  This  added  considerably  to  the  general 
excitement,  which  I  afterwards  learned  was  pre- 
vailing in  relation  to  slavery,  and  in  a  short  time 


238  O BERLIN  JUBILEE. 

it  was  noised  about  that  I  had  been  ''  circulating 
incendiary  periodicals  among  the  free  colored 
people,  trying  to  incite  the  slaves  to  insurrection." 
So  soon  as  the  report  came  to  my  knowledge,  I 
went  to  Mr.  Stout  and  explained  how  the  pamph- 
lets had  been  left  in  the  barouche.  I  then  took 
into  my  custody  the  rest  of  them,  and  locked  them 
up  in  my  trunk.  Mr.  Stout,  on  this  occasion,  told 
me  the  scene  represented  in  the  cut  was  one  of 
frequent  occurrence ;  that  it  was  accurate  in  all 
parts,  and  that  he  had  witnessed  it  again  and 
again.  Mr.  Stout  was  himself  a  slaveholder,  though, 
as  he  said,  opposed  to  slavery  in  principle — a 
member  if  not  an  elder  in  a  Presbyterian  Church, 
and  one  of  the  committee  of  vigilance  which  after- 
wards sat  in  judgment  upon  me.  The  excitement 
continued  to  increase,  and  it  \\*as  soon  added  to 
to  the  report  that  I  had  been  posting  up  handbills 
about  the  city,  inviting  an  insurrection  of  the 
slaves.  Knowing  all  the  charges  to  be  false,  feel- 
ing unconscious  of  any  evil  intentions,  and  there- 
fore fearless  of  danger,  I  continued  to  sell  my 
Bibles  in  and  around  the  city  till  Saturday,  the  i8th 
of  the  month,  when  I  was  preparing  to  leave  town 
to  attend  a  camp  meeting,  held  some  eight  miles 
distant.  A  Mr.  Estell,  formerly  an  auctioneer 
and  vender  of  slaves  at  public  outcry,  in  Alabama, 
met  me  at  the  door,  and  demanded  ''those  aboli- 
tion documents"  I  had  in  my  possession.  I  rephed 
that  he  should  have  them,  and  proceeded  to  get 
them  for  him.  When  he  made  the  demand,  he 
was   under  the  influence  of  very  highly  excited 


ANTI-  SLA  VER  V  RE  UNION.  2  39 

feeling,  his  whole  frame  indicating  agitation  even 
to  trembling.  On  presenting  the  pamphlets,  I 
requested  him  to  read  before  he  condemned  them. 
This  seemed  to  greatly  increase  his  rage. 

I  then  proceeded  to  the  camp  ground,  where 
about  two  hours  after  my  arrival  I  was  taken  in 
charge  by  Mr.  Raughton,  the  principal  city  officer. 
I  take  pleasure  here  in  stating  of  Mr.  Raughton, 
that,  allowing  his  conduct  to  be  strictly  official,  he 
exhibited  to  me  throughout  the  whole  of  this 
melancholy  affair  the  kindest  and  most  delicate 
deportment.  I  immediately  accompanied  him  to 
town,  where,  on  arriving  at  my  boarding-house, 
I  found  the  mayor,  Mr.  John  P.  Erwin,  waiting 
for  us.  He  remarked  he  was  afraid  I  had  got 
myself  into  difficulty,  and  wished  me  to  appear 
before  the  committee  of  vigilance.  To  this  I  re- 
plied that  it  would  give  me  pleasure  to  do  so,  as 
I  wished  it  understood  just  what  I  had  done,  and 
what  I  had  not  done.  He  then  asked  if  I  had  any 
witnesses  I  wished  to  have  called.  My  reply  was, 
I  knew  not  what  need  I  had  of  witnesses,  till  I  had 
heard  the  charge  brought  against  me ;  that  I  sup- 
posed it  would  be  necessary  to  prove  me  guilty  of 
some  misdemeanor,  and  not  that  it  should  be  re- 
quired of  me  to  prove  that  I  had  broken  no  law. 
To  his  demand,  if  I  was  ready  for  trial,  I  answered, 
I  wished  it  to  take  place  immediately,  as  I  was 
anxious  to  return  to  the  camp  ground.  We  re- 
paired to  the  court  room,  which  was  at  once 
crowded  full  to  overflowing.  The  roll  of  the 
committee  (sixty  in  number)  was  called,  and  the 


240  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

names  of  absentees  proclaimed.  The  meeting 
being  called  to  order  the  Mayor  stated  that  he 
had  caused  me  to  be  arrested  and  brought  before 
the  committee,  in  consequence  of  the  excitement 
produced  by  periodicals  known  to  have  been  in 
my  possession,  and  that  he  had  also  taken  into  his 
charge  my  trunk,  which  he  had  delaA^ed  opening 
until  my  return.  The  trunk  was  then  produced 
before  the  committee,  and  a  motion  made  and 
carried  that  I  should  be  interrogated  as  to  its  con- 
tents before  opening  it.  On  being  interrogated 
accordingly,  I  replied,  as  the  trunk  was  before 
them,  I  preferred  they  should  make  the  examina- 
tion for  themselves.  It  was  then  resolved  (the 
whole  house  voting)  that  my  trunk  should  be 
examined.  The  officer  first  laid  before  the  com- 
mittee a  pile  of  clothing,  which  was  examined  very 
closely,  then  followed  my  books,  among  which 
was  found  one  copy  of  the  "  Oasis,"  one  of  Ran- 
kin's Letters  on  Slavery,  and  one  of  ''  Bourne's 
Picture  of  Slavery  in  the  United  States."  These, 
I  informed  the  committee,  I  had  put  in  my  trunk 
for  my  own  perusal,  as  I  wished  to  compare  what 
had  been  written  with  the  results  of  my  own 
observations  while  in  the  slave  States,  and  that  no 
individual  had  seen  them  beside  myself.  A  care- 
ful inspection  was  made  of  the  books.  Then  were 
presented  my  business  and  private  letters,  which 
were  read  with  eagerness  and  much  interest. 
Extracts  .were  read  aloud.  Among  them  was  one 
from  a  letter  received  from  a  very  aged  and  vene- 
rable lady,  running  thus :  "  Preached  a  stream  of 


ANTI  SLA  VER  V  RE  UN  WIST.  24 1 

abolition  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  long,"  in 
travelling  from  Cincinnati  to  Cleveland.  Great 
importance  was  attached  to  this.  Another  spoke 
of  the  inconsistency  of  celebrating  the  Fourth  of 
July  while  so  many  among  us  were  literally  in  bond- 
age. Another,  from  a  letter  of  Mr.  Ensign  (a  gen- 
tleman well  known  to  entertain  no  very  favorable 
sentiments  for  Abolition),  which,  after  urging  me  to 
diligence  in  the  sale  of  my  Bibles  (obtained  from 
him)  jestingly  concluded  :  "  Now,  don't  spend  more 
than  half  your  time  among  the  niggers."  This 
was  cheered  by  the  crowd.  The  last  was  from 
a  friend  of  mine,  who  remarked  on  visiting  his 
friends  at  the  East  Abolition  had  been  the  princi- 
pal topic  of  conversation  that  day,  and  he  had 
preached  on  slavery  at  night.  Great  stress  was 
laid  on  these  extracts,  and  I  was  questioned  very 
minutely  as  to  the  authors  of  the  letters.  They 
labored  much  to  prove  I  was  sent  out  by  some 
societ}^  and  that  I  was  under  the  guise  of  a  reli- 
gious mission,  performing  the  odious  office  of  an 
insurrectionary  agent. 

My  journal  was  next  brought  in  review ;  but,  as 
it  had  been  kept  partly  in  short  hand  and  in  pencil 
mark,  the  memoranda  short  and  hastily  written, 
it  served  them  little  purpose.  It  was  laid  down 
again  by  the  Mayor  who  had  attempted  to  read  it 
aloud,  with  the  remark,  "  It  cannot  be  read,  but  it 
is  evidently  very  hostile  to  slavery." 

A  witness  was  called  forward  by  whom  it  was 
proved  that  an  anti-slavery  periodical  of  some 
kind    had   been    left   by  some   individual   on   the 


242  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

counter  of  the  Nashville  inn ;  that  it  was  left  with 
a  copy  of  the  Cottage  Bible,  at  the  time  I  arrived 
there.  On  being  questioned  by  me,  it  turned  out 
to  be  a  copy  of  the  Emancipator^  used  as  an  en^ 
velope  or  wrapper  to  the  Bible.  Other  witnesses 
were  called,  but  this  is  the  substance  of  all  they 
proved  against  me. 

It  was  conceded  without  hesitation  on  my  part 
that  I  had  sold  a  copy  of  Rankin's  Letters  in  Sum- 
ner County,  and  that  I  had  read  to  Mr.  Cayce,  at 
his  request,  the  number  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Record 
before  mentioned,  which  he  said  contained  nothing 
that  any  candid  man,  and  especially  any  Christian 
could  gainsay.  The  chairman  of  the  committee 
asked  me  if  I  remembered  the  places  where  I  had 
circulated  anti-slavery  tracts  ;  thus  by  the  form  of 
the  question,  as  well  as  by  his  manner,  making  the 
impression  that  I  had  circulated  them  somewhere, 
and  that  the  fact  of  my  having  done  so  was  known 
to  the  committee.  To  this  I  replied  that  what  I 
did  I  did  openly,  that  I  had  not  distributed  any 
anti-slavery  publications  whatever  in  Tennessee, 
except  the  one  mentioned,  and  that,  if  any  had 
been  found  under  circumstances  calculated  to 
throw  suspicion  on  me,  it  was  a  device  of  my  ene- 
mies. On  being  interrogated  on  my  former  con- 
nection with  Lane  Seminary,  I  informed  the  com- 
mittee that  I  had  been  a  member  of  that  institu- 
tion, as  well  as  the  Anti-Slavery  Society,  formed 
there  more  than  a  year  before,  and  that  I  had 
voluntarily  withdrawn,  and  had  received  an  hon- 
orable dismission  from  the  same. 


ANTI-SLAVERY  REUNION.  243 

A  handbill  was  next  produced,  and  I  was  asked 
if  I  had  ever  seen  it  before.  After  having  ex- 
amined, I  replied  I  never  had.  I  was  then  asked 
with  a  stronger  emphasis,  if  I  was  sure  I  had 
never  seen  a  copy  of  it.  I  again  rephed  I  was 
sure  I  never  had.  I  was  asked  a  third  time,  with  a 
provoking  and  still  stronger  emphasis,  if  I  was 
positively  sure  I  had  never  seen  anything  of  the 
kind.  I  again  took  it  into  my  hand,  and  after  ex- 
amining it  more  minutely,  again  replied  I  was  posi- 
tively sure  I  had  never  seen  anything  of  the  kind. 
The  trial  continued  from  between  4  and  5  o'clock 
P.M.  until  10  o'clock,  when  I  was  called  upon  for 
my  defence.  The  perplexity  I  must  have  felt  in 
making  it  may  well  be  imagined  when  it  is  re- 
collected that  I  was  charged  not  with  transgress- 
ing any  law  of  the  state  or  ordinance  of  the  city, 
but  with  conduct  to  which,  if  the  law  had  attached 
the  penalty  of  crime,  its  forms  were  totally  disre- 
garded, and  this,  too,  before  an  array  of  persons 
banded  together  in  contravention  of  law,  and 
from  whose  mandate  of  execution  there  was  no 
appeal.  However,  I  took  the  opportunity  thus 
offered  to  fully  declare  my  sentiments  on  the  sub- 
ject of  slavery.  While  I  told  them  I  believed 
slaveholding  to  be  inconsistent  with  the  Gospel, 
and  a  constant  transgression  of  God's  law,  I  yet 
said  in  bringing  about  emancipation,  the  interests 
of  the  master  were  to  be  consulted  as  well  as 
those  of  the  slave,  and  that  the  whole  scheme  of 
emancipation  contemplated  this  result ;  that  the 
slave  should  be  put  in  possession  of  rights  which 


544  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

we  have  declared  to  be  inalienable  from  him  as  a 
man  ;  that  he  should  be  considered  as  an  immortal 
fellow-being,  entrusted  by  his  master  with  the 
custody  of  his  own  happiness,  and  accountable  to 
him  for  the  exercise  of  his  power ;  that  he  should 
be  treated  as  our  neighbor  and  our  brother.  In 
leference  to  my  demeanor  towards  the  slave, 
that  in  the  few  instances  in  which  I  had  casually 
conversed  with  them,  I  had  recommended  quiet- 
ness, patience,  submission ;  teaching  them  to  re- 
turn good  for  evil,  and  discountenancing  every 
scheme  of  emancipation  which  did  not,  during  its 
process,  look  for  its  success  in  the  good  conduct 
of  the  slaves  while  they  remain  such,  and  to  the 
influence  of  argument  and  pursuasion  addressed 
to  the  understanding  and  conscience  of  the  slave- 
holder, exhorting  them  to  obey  God  in  doing 
justice  and  showing  mercy  to  their  fellow-man. 

After  my  remarks  were  ended  the  crowd  were 
requested  to  withdraw,  while  the  committee  de- 
liberated the  case.  In  company  with  a  friend  or 
two  I  was  directed  to  a  private  room  near  at  hand, 
to  await  the  decision.  Up  to  this  period  during 
the  whole  proceedings  my  mind  was  composed, 
my  spirits  calm  and  unruffled  ;  nor  did  I  entertain 
the  most  distant  apprehension  that  there  would 
be  so  flagrant  a  violation  of  my  rights  as  an 
American  citizen,  and  so  deliberate  an  attempt 
to  dishonor  me  as  a  man. 

In  this  confidence  I  was  strengthened  by  a  con- 
sideration of  all  the  circumstances  of  the  case. 
What  I  had  done  I   had  done  openly.     There  was 


ANTI-  SLA  VER  V  RE  UNIOI^.  24  5 

no  law  forbidding  what  I  had  done.  I  had  con- 
tracted no  guilt  that  the  law  considered  such — my 
intentions  had  been  those  of  kindness  to  all — I  had 
no  secret  feelings  of  guilt,  arraigning  nie  before 
the  bar  of  my  conscience,  for  any  mean  or  clandes- 
tine motive.  In  addition  to  this,  too,  among  my 
triers,  there  was  a  great  portion  of  the  respect- 
ability of  Nashville — nearly  half  of  the  whole 
population,  professors  of  Christianity,  the  reputed 
stay  of  the  church,  supporters  of  the  cause  of  be- 
nevolence in  the  form  of  Tracts  and  Missionary 
societies  and  Sabbath-schools,  several  members  and 
most  of  the  elders  of  the  Presbyterian  church,  and 
from  whose  hands  but  a  few  days  before  I  had  re- 
ceived the  emblems  of  the  broken  body  and  shed 
blood  of  our  blessed  Savior. 

My  expectations,  however,  were  soon  shaken  by 
Mr.  Braughton's  saying,  on  entering  the  room 
where  I  was,  that  he  feared  it  would  go  hard  with 
me — that,  while  some  of  the  committee  were  in 
favor  of  thirty-nine,  others  were  for  inflicting  one 
hundred  and  two  hundred  lashes,  Avhile  others 
still  thought  me  worthy  of  death. 

I  repeat,  that  till  this  moment  my  mind  had  been 
unruffled.  But,  when  it  was  announced  that  my 
life  was  demanded,  for  an  instant  my  whole  frame 
was  agitated,  but  when  I  considered  all  the 
oppression  that  was  done  under  the  sun,  and  be- 
held the  tears  of  the  oppressed,  and  saw  they  had 
no  comforter,  and  on  the  side  of  their  oppressor 
was  power,  but  they  had  no  comforter,  and  espe^ 
cially  when  I  remembered  that  m}^  precious  Savior 


246  OBERLTN  JUBILEE. 

had  laid  down  his  Hfe  for  me,  it  seemed  a  privilege, 
if  demanded,  to  lay  down  my  life  for  the  brethren. 
Committing  my  cause  to  Him  who  judgeth  right- 
eously, I  again  had  perfect  peace,  and  with  patience 
and  composure  waited  the  issue. 

My  suspense  was  at  length  terminated  on  being 
summoned  to  hear  the  decision;  it  was  prefaced 
by  a  few  remarks  of  this  kind  by  the  chairman, 
"  That  they  had  acted  with  great  caution  and  de- 
liberation, and,  however  unsatisfactory  their  de- 
cision might  be  to  me,  they  had  acted  conscien- 
tiously, with  a  full  recognition  of  their  duty  to 
God  :" — they  had  found  me  guilty,  first,  of  being 
a  member  of  an  -  anti-slavery  society  of  Ohio ; 
second,  of  having  in  my  possession  periodicals 
published  by  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society  ; 
and  third,  they  believed  I  had  circulated  these 
periodicals,  and  advocated  in  the  community 
the  principles  they  inculcated."  He  then  pro- 
nounced that  I  was  condemned  to  receive  twenty 
lashes  upon  my  bare  back,  and  ordered  to  leave 
the  place  in  twenty -four  hours.  (This  was  not  an 
hour  previous  to  the  commencement  of  the  Sab- 
bath). 

The  doors  were  thrown  open  and  the  crowd  ad- 
mitted. To  them  it  was  again  remarked,  that  the 
committee  had  been  actuated  by  conscientious 
motives  ;  and  to  those  who  thought  the  punish- 
ment too  severe,  they  would  only  say,  they  had 
done  what  they,  after  mature  deliberation,  thought 
to  be  right ;  and  to  those  who  thought  it  too  light, 
they  must  say,  that  in  coming  to  their  decision  the 


ANTI-SLAVERY  REUNION.  24^ 

committee  had  not  so  much  regarded  the  number 
of  stripes,  as  the  disgrace  and  infamy  of  being 
pubHcly  whipped.  The  sentence  being  again  re- 
peated, it  was  received  with  great  applause,  ac- 
companied with  stamping  of  feet  and  clapping  of 
hands. 

The  chairman  called  for  the  sentiments  of  the 
spectators  in  reference  to  their  approbation  of  the 
decision  of  the  committee,  desiring  all  who  were 
satisfied  with  it,  and  would  pledge  themselves  that 
1  should  receive  no  injury  after  the  execution  of 
the  sentence,  to  signif}^  it  in  the  usual  way.  There 
was  no  dissenting  voice. 

The  chairman  then  expressed,  in  terms  border- 
ing on  the  extravagant,  his  high  gratification  at  the 
sense  of  propriety  that  had  been  manifest  in  the 
conduct  of  the  meetings,  and  that  so  much  con- 
fidence was  placed  in  the  committee.  The  crowd 
was  now  ordered  to  proceed  to  the  public  square, 
and  form  a  ring. 

I  had  been  assured  that  my  trunk  with  all  its 
contents,  as  they  were  taken  out,  would  be  re- 
turned to  me.  But  while  the  crowd  were  leaving 
the  house  Mr.  Hunt,  the  editor  of  the  Banner,  and, 
as  I  am  informed,  an  emigrant  from  New  England, 
where  he  was  born,  set  himself  to  work  to  secure 
in  his  own  hands  my  journal,  sketch-book,  busi- 
ness and  private  letters,  etc. 

By  no  one  concerned  in  the  whole  proceedings, 
was  there  so  much  exasperated  feeling  shown  as 
by  Mr.  H.  It  was  now  displayed  in  the  cold 
death-like   countenance,  the  agitated    frame,  the 


248  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

hurried,  furious  air  with  which  he  seized  the 
papers  and  tied  them  up  in  a  handkerchief,  clinch- 
ing thenri  in  his  hands,  and  at  the  same  time  eye- 
ing me  with  an  intense  yet  vacant  gaze,  bespeak- 
ing not  only  rage,  but  a  consciousness  of  doing 
wrong.  Of  my  papers  I  have  heard  nothing  since 
Mr.  H.  took  them  in  his  custody. 

(I  was  told  by  Mr. ,  of  Boston,  Mass.,  who 

accompanied  Mr.  Hunt  to  the  Southern  States, 
that  on  their  first  sight  of  slavery  Mr.  H.  was  so 
shocked  by  the  crudities  and  barbarities  which  his 
eyes  saw  and  his  ears  heard,  that  he  again  and 
again  repeated  that  he  must  return  to  New  Eng- 
land. He  could  not  live  and  witness  such  shock- 
ing abominations. 

"  Vice  IS  a  monster  of  so  hideous  mien. 
That  to  be  hated  needs  but  to  be  seen  ; 
But  seen  too  oft,  familiar  with  her  face, 
We  first  endure,  then  pity,  then  embrace." 

I  entered  the  ring  that  had  been  formed  ;  the 
chairman  (accompanied  by  the  committee)  again 
called  for  an  expression  of  sentiment  in  relation  to 
the  sentence  passed  upon  me ;  again  the  vote  was 
unanimous  in  approbation  of  it,  and  again  did  he 
express  his  gratification  at  the  good  order  by 
which  the  whole  proceeding  had  been  charaterized. 
While  some  of  the  compan}^  had  been  engaged  in 
stripping  me  of  my  garments,  a  motion  was  made 
and  seconded  that  I  be  exonerated  altogether  from 
the  punishment.  This  brought  many  and  furious 
imprecations  on  the   mover's  head,  and  created  a 


AN  TI-  SLA  VER  V  KE  UNION-.  24Q 

commotion  which  was  appeased  only  by  the  sound 
of  the  instrument  of  torture  and  disgrace  upon  my 
naked  body. 

I  knelt  to  receive  the  punishment,  which  was  in- 
flicted by  Mr.  Braughton,  the  city  officer,  with  a 
heavy  cow  skin.  It  was  now  the  same  hour  of 
the  night  in  which  ''  Paul  and  Silas  prayed  and 
sang  praises  to  God,"  and  I  felt  that  the  foundation 
walls  (of  slavery)  where  shaken,  the  Sabbath — 
emblem  of  the  rest  that  remaineth  to  the  people 
of  God — was  just  commencing.  Nearly  one-half 
of  the  committee  who  condemned  me  were  mem- 
bers of  the  different  churches  in  Nashville.  Two 
of  them  were  preachers  (one  of  them,  a  Methodist, 
the  other  a  Disciple),  and  a  large  number  of  them 
were  members  of  the  Presbyterian  church,  with 
whom  I  sat  at  the  communion  table  about  three 
weeks  before,  seven  of  them  elders  in  that  church, 
from  whose  hands  I  had  received  the  bread  and 
the  cup  in  rememberance  of  the  sufferings  of 
Christ ;  and  one  of  these  elders  now  stood  by  and 
held  my  clothes  while  I  was  scourged.  These  cir- 
cumstances, together  with  the  calm  serenity  of  the 
midnight  hour,  and  the  thought  of  meeting  that 
immense  crowd  at  the  bar  of  God,  gave  feelings 
better  imagined  than  described.  To  give  vent  to 
those  feelings  I  attempted  to  raise  my  voice  to 
heaven  in  prayer.  The  death-like  silence  that  pre- 
vailed for  a  moment  was  suddenly  broken  with 
loud  exclamations,  "  G — d  d — n  him,  stop  his  pray- 
ing !"  I  was  raised  to  my  feet  by  Mr.  Braughton 
and  conducted  by  him  to  my  lodgings,  where  it 


250  OBERLIN  /UBILEE. 

was  thougnt  safe  for  me  to  remain  but  for  a  few 
moments. 

And  though  most  of  my  friends  were  at  the 
camp  grounds,  I  was  introduced  into  a  f-amily  of 
entire  strangers,  from  whom  I  received  a  warm  re- 
ception, and  the  most  kind  and  tender  treatment. 
They  will  ever  be  remembered  with  grateful 
emotions. 

On  the  ensuing  morning,  owing  to  the  great  ex- 
citement that  was  still  prevailing,  I  found  it  neces- 
sary to  leave  the  place  in  disguise,  with  only  what 
clothing  I  had  about  my  person,  leaving  unsold 
property  to  the  amount  of  three  hundred  dollars, 
and  sacrificing  at  least  two  hundred  dollars  on  my 
barouche  and  horses,  which  I  was  obliged  to  sell. 
Of  my  effects  in  Nashville  I  have  heard  nothing 
since  my  return,  though  I  have  often  written  to 
my  friends  concerning  them. 


HOW  JOHN  PRICE  WAS  RESCUED. 

BY   REV.    RICHARD  WINSOR,    '(^J, 

How  John  Price  was  rescued  at  Wellington  has 
for  years  been  a  wonder  ;  but  it  has  often  afforded 
me  great  pleasure  in  a  distant  land  to  relate  the 
incidents  of  that  hour  to  many  an  interested  list- 
ener. 

On  the  day  in  which  he  was  kidnapped,  hearing 
a  commotion  in  the  square,  I  made  the  remark  to 
a  friend,  *'  I  must  see  what  the  matter  is." 

In  a  moment  I  was  on  the  spot,  and  found  that 
John  Price,  a  boy  who  had  been  in  my  little  Sab- 
bath-school, was  kidnapped.  All  was  commotion; 
old  men  and  young  were  ready  to  start  to  the  rescue. 

Two  men,  whom  I  knew,  were  just  seating  them- 
selves in  a  buggy.  I  said,  "  I  go  with  you,"  and  hold 
ing  three  rifles  in  my  hand,  we  drove  through  the 
crowd  of  students  and  citizens  who  had  assembled 
in  the  square,  and  taking  off  my  hat,  I  said,  ''  I  am 
going  to  rescue  John  Price."  Immediately  shout 
on  shout  and  cheer  on  cheer  went  up  from  the 
assembly,  and  on  we  went.  Some  had  already  set 
out,  taking  what  weapons  they  could  find,  and 
all  hurrying  toward  Wellington;  but  our  buggy 
passed  everything.  That  nine  miles  between  Ober- 
lin  and  Wellington  was  made  in  quicker  time  than 


252  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

the  same  distance  was  ever  made  by  me  before  by 
horse  and  buggy. 

It  was  Mrs.  Ryder's  horse,  and  she  had  said,  "If 
necessary,  spare  not  the  Hfe  of  my  beast,  but  rescue 
the  boy." 

It  was  the  purpose  of  the  Kentucky  kidnappers 
to  reach  Wellington  to  take  the  five  o'clock  train 
that  afternoon  to  go  South,  in  which  event  we,  no 
doubt,  should  have  lost  our  prize. 

We  reached  Wellington,  and  found  the  kidnap- 
pers, with  the  boy,  in  the  garret  of  the  hotel.  An 
immense  crowd  was  fast  gathering,  and  hundreds 
of  pro-slavery  men,  willing  to  show  their  loyalty 
to  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act  of  1850,  had  gathered  at 
the  hotel  to  protect  the  man-stealers. 

Wishing  to  enter  the  hotel,  we  procured  the  ser- 
vices of  the  constable,  so  as  to  do  it  legally,  and 
then  Mr.  Scrimgeour,  our  tutor,  Mr.  Watson  and 
myself,  led  by  the  constable,  proceeded  to  enter  the 
hotel ;  but  as  I  had  a  rifle  in  my  hand,  I  was  not  at 
first  permitted  to  enter,  while  the  former  two  were. 
I  told  the  crowd  of  men  keeping  the  door  that  I 
must  and  would  go  in,  as  I  had  authority  to  do  it, 
whereupon  they  said,  "  No  arms  can  be  admitted"; 
but  I  said,  "Well  then,  take  the  rifle,  if  you  choose. 
I  must  go."  They  took  the  weapon,  which  they 
bent  over  a  brick  wall.  I  went  into  the  house  and 
up  into  the  garret,  or  attic,  where  the  boy  was. 
Troops  had  been  telegraphed  for  to  Cleveland,  and 
the  aim  of  the  pro-slavery  crowd  was  to  detain  us 
and  prevent  the  few  anti-slavery  men  from  getting 
the  boy  away  before  the  troops  came.     But  the 


HOW  JOHN  PRICE    WAS  RESCUED,  253 

five  o'clock  train  came  in;  no  troops  were  there. 
Watson,  Scrimgeour,  and  the  constable  left  the 
garret.  The  two  Kentuckians,  with  drawn  pistols, 
the  boy  and  myself,  were  left  alone,  and  the  door 
fastened  by  a  rope  inside,  held  by  the  two  men.  I 
found  that  now  some  of  our  students  had  reached 
the  garret  and  stood  outside  the  door.  I  took 
John  Price  over  to  the  other  end  of  the  room. 
The  two  kidnappers  presented  their  pistols,  and 
dared  me  to  touch  that  boy ;  but  I  said  I  thought 
I  should,  and  then  took  him  aside  and  asked  him 
whether  he  wished  to  go  back  home  to  Oberlin. 
He  said  he  did.  The  sun  was  just  setting,  and  in 
the  light  of  the  rays  that  fell  upon  the  floor  of  a 
closet,  I  wrote  on  a  slip  of  paper  a  line  to  let  the 
students  outside  know  our  position  within.  I  put 
that  note  up  the  sleeve  of  my  coat  and  went  to  the 
door  that  was  held  fast  and  tight  by  the  kidnap- 
pers. There  was  a  stone  pipe-hole  in  the  wall,  and 
taking  a  chair  near  by,  I  stood  upon  it,  and  hear- 
ing the  voice  of  Lincoln  outside,  I  said,  ''  Lincoln, 
give  me  your  hand,"  and  out  from  my  coat-sleeve 
dropped  the  note  into  Lincoln's  hand  (Lincoln  tells 
me  he  still  has  that  slip  of  paper).  Immediately 
the  door,  by  a  sudden  jerk,  came  open  wide  enough 
to  permit  the  students  to  thrust  in  the  muzzles  of 
their  guns,  which  kept  the  door  from  being  closed 
on  their  fingers,  and  then  with  a  united  pull  the 
door  came  wide  open.  But  the  two  great  Ken- 
tuckians rushed  into  the  doorway,  quite  filling  the 
space  between  the  door-posts,  and  a  warm  contest 
in  words  ensued. 


254  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

At  this  juncture,  I  took  the  boy,  putting  his 
arms  around  my  waist  and  telling  him  to  keep  his 
head  close  to  my  back  between  my  shoulders.  I 
stood  beside  his  captors,  and  pushing  my  head  and 
shoulders  little  by  little  forward,  as  if  listening  to 
the  warm  debate,  keeping  the  boy  at  my  back, 
I  gave  a  sudden  lurch,  passed  out  with  my  prize, 
went  through  that  crowd  down  the  long  flight  of 
stairs  into  a  buggy  that  was  in  waiting  for  me,  and 
was  off  before  they  knew  I  had  gone.  The  boy 
was  taken  care  of  overnight,  and  soon  passed  on 
to  far-away  friends. 

At  Oberlin  noble  hearts  were  anxiously  waiting 
to  learn  the  result  of  the  hour.  *'  Sim  Bushnell" 
was  able  to  go  to  one  side  of  the  town  while  I 
went  to  the  other  to  relate  the  glad  news  that 
John  Price  was  rescued — the  Lord  had  given  suc- 
cess. 

After  this,  followed  the  imprisonment  of  many 
of  our  good  people.  While  within  these  prison 
walls  for  the  eighty-five  daj^s,  men's  hearts  were 
moved,  as  was  my  own,  when  I  stood  a  youth  and 
saw  Burns  conveyed  between  a  double  line  of 
armed  soldiers  through  the  city  of  Boston  back  to 
slavery.  Every  house-top  in  the  line  of  march, 
every  window,  every  door^step,  was  filled  with 
eager  spectators,  thousands  thronged  the  olden 
city  as  oft  they  were  not  wont  to  do. 

Then  to  my  young  heart  State  Street  became  a 
Roman  altar,  the  sacrifice  on  which  was  brightly 
burning,  w^hen  from  our  midst  at  Oberlin  a  youth 
was  stolen. 


HOW  JOHN  PRICE    WAS  RESCUED,  255 

Into  that  prison,  during  our  stay,  there  poured  a 
stream  of  living  souls  ;  old  man  and  maiden,  mother 
and  son,  patriot  and  statesman,  sat  in  our  midst  in 
that  upper  room,  and  tears  rolled  down  the  cheeks 
of  many  a  sire  as  we  related  the  stor}^  of  the  day. 
From  the  far  West,  from  the  distant  North,  from 
Canada,  from  the  East,  and  even  from  the  South, 
came  thousands  to  hear  and  to  see  for  themselves, 
to  sympathize  and  to  become  strong  in  their  pur 
poses,  more  fervent  than  ever,  more  resolute  to 
rise  up  and  stand  against  the  great  curse  of  Amer- 
ican civilization. 

One  could  not  see  these  thousands  of  noble  men 
and  women  visiting  us  in  that  prison  and  notice 
the  deep  sadness  in  which  they  hung  their  heads  for 
very  shame  for  America's  name  without  perceiving 
that  hearts  were  moved  in  this  nation  as  nothing 
heretofore  had  ever  moved  them,  and  that  patriots 
were  being  made  ready  for  the  war  that  was  so 
soon  to  follow. 

Nothing  in  the  history  of  the  country  so  pre- 
pared it  to  apprehend  and  to  do  away  with  the 
evil,  slavery,  as  the  influence  that  went  forth  from 
that  prison  to  leaven  the  whole  people,  and  which 
so  prepared  them  for  the  great  conflict  that  was  to 
do  away  for  ever  with  what  was  called  "  the  right 
of  man  in  man." 


JUBILEE   EXERCISES. 

Wednesday,  July  4th. 
ADDRESS   OF  WELCOME,  BY   PRESIDENT   FAIRCHILD. 

Mr.  President  and  Friends:  The  first  im- 
pression that  strikes  us  as  we  gather  upon  this 
jubilee  occasion  is  one  of  sadness.  '*  The  Fathers — 
where  are  they  ?"  The  stately  forms  that  occu- 
pied the  Oberlin  platform  in  the  early  years  do 
not  stand  before  us.  The  voices,  whose  tones  of 
wisdom  and  authority  still  linger  in  our  ears,  we 
do  not  hear.  It  seems  an  impertinence  that  any 
other  forms  should  rise  in  our  presence,  or  any 
other  voices  ask  our  attention.  But  the  fathers 
are  not  here  to  welcome  us,  as  we  gather  back, 
after  fifty  years,  to  the  family  heritage.  They 
have  rested  from  their  labors — most  of  them  al- 
ready gathered  in  the  heavenly  jubilee,  rejoicing 
in  the  Master's  welcome,  "  Well  done,  good  and 
faithful  servants."  The  fathers  have  left  us,  but 
Oberlin,  which  is,  in  a  sense,  the  mother  of  us  all, 
remains  in  her  early  maturity  of  fifty  years,  and 
she  opens  wide  her  arms  with  a  welcome  and  a 
blessing  for  us  all.  She  asks  all  her  children,  of 
the  earlier  and  the  later  years,  to  make  themselves 
at  home  once  more,  and  talk  over  with  each  other, 
in  her  presence,  the  family  history,  and  their  own 
varied  experiences,  as  they  have  been  scattered 
abroad  in  the  world. 


ADDRESS  OF    WELCOME.  257 

Let  US  look  around  for  a  moment  upon  each 
other  and  see  who  of  the  OberHn  family  have 
gathered  here  to-day.  All,  from  the  oldest  to  the 
youngest,  were  invited.  All  would  have  been 
glad  to  come  ;  but  who  are  here  ? 

Of  the  score  of  men  and  women  who  fifty  years 
ago  to-day  were  sheltered  under  the  trees  of  the 
Oberlin  forest  but  a  scanty  representation  remains. 
Of  the  men  whose  stalwart  arms  were  laying  the 
forests  low,  Phihp  James  is  the  only  survivor,  and 
he  is  so  occupied  in  laying  foundations  on  the 
distant  prairies  of  Nebraska  that  he  cannot  be  with 
us,  but  sends  us  his  greeting. 

Three  of  the  women  who  were  numbered  with 
that  group  are  found  in  our  family  circle  to-day — 
Mrs.  Stewart,  who,  with  her  husband,  was  fifty 
years  ago  keeping  the  Oberlin  gate  at  Elyria  ;  Mrs. 
Hamilton  and  Mrs.  Bartholomew,  and,  in  addition, 
a  daughter  of  the  earliest  family,  Mrs.  Amanda 
Pease  Williams  and  son,  Mr.  Frederick  H.  Pease. 
Probably  three  or  four  others  are  present  who 
took  up  their  abode  on   the  Oberlin  grounds  in 

1833. 

Of  the  teachers  who  came  the  first  year,  only 
Mrs.  George  Clark,  then  Miss  Eliza  Branch,  who 
had  charge  of  the  primary  department  of  the 
school,  appears  among  us.  Mr.  John  F.  Scovill, 
who  was  at  the  head  of  the  school  the  first  winter, 
and  Rev.  S.  H.  Waldo,  who  took  the  position  of 
principal  in  the  spring  of  1834,  send  us  their  greet- 
ing, and  the  assurance  that  they  are  with  us  in  spirit. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Branch  are  in  their  distant  home  in 


258  OBERLIN  JUBILEE.  , 

Kansas,  and  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Dascomb  have  left  us 
for  the  heavenly  home. 

Of  the  teachers  who  came  in  with  the  enlarge- 
ment of  1835,  Professor  Morgan  only  is  here  to  join 
in  the  Oberlin  welcome,  and  to  receive  our  greet- 
ing. President  Mahan,  from  his  distant  and  abund- 
ant work  in  London,  sends  his  salutations.  The 
other  two,  whose  names  we  recall  with  reverent 
love,  President  Finney  and  Professor  Cowles,  we 
shall  meet  again  only  in  the  final  reunion.  One 
who  was  called  to  be  of  this  group  of  1835,  and  who 
responded  to  the  call  after  thirty-six  years,  Profes- 
sor Barrows,  still  walks  with  us,  and  gives  us  the 
blessing  of  his  benignant  countenance  and  cheerful, 
heavenly  spirit. 

Of  the  group  first  called  in  to  reinforce  these 
early  teachers,  trained  to  the  work  in  the  school, 
Geo.  W.  Whipple,  T.  B.  Hudson,  James  A.  Thome, 
George  N.  Allen,  William  Cochran,  and  Mary 
Ann  Adams,  all  have  finished  their  earthly  work. 
Two  only  survive,  N.  W.  Hodge,  who  is  with  us 
to-day,  after  many  3xars'  absence,  and  he  who  now 
stands  before  you,  the  only  representative  of  those 
who  should  have  been  the  venerable  members  of 
the  working  faculty  to-day.  Of  those  who  suc- 
ceeded these,  and  who  constitute  the  present 
faculty,  upon  whom  falls  the  burden  and  heat  of 
the  day  in  college-work,  it  is  not  necessary  to 
speak  particularly.  They  are  here  to  speak  for 
themselves,  and  to  sustain  the  welcome  which 
Oberlin  gives  to  her  returning  sons  and  daughters. 

Of  the  trustees  of  the  college  there  is  present 


ADDRESS  OF    WELCOME.  259 

the  only  survivor  of  the  nine  men  whose  names 
were  in  the  original  charter  as  corporators,  Jabez 
L.  Burrell;  and  others  of  later  years  who  have 
stood  by  the  good  ship  in  many  a  storm,  and  have 
helped  to  bring  her  into  the  calmer  waters  of  this 
later  day.  Many,  with  the  original  founders, 
have  gone  to  their  reward,  and  need  no  earthly 
welcome.  If  Mr.  Shipherd  were  amongst  us  to- 
day he  would  be  only  81  years  of  age,  not  older 
than  some  who  still  remain  ;  and  Mr.  Stewart  would 
be  eighty-five.  It  would  have  been  a  satisfaction 
to-day  if  they  could  have  been  spared  to  take  the 
central  position  in  the  Oberlin  gathering  ;  but  Mrs. 
Stewart  stands  alone  from  the  original  four. 
Those  who  are  called  to  lay  foundations  are  rarely 
indulged  with  the  privilege  of  seeing  whereunto 
their  work  shall  grow. 

Students  are  come  back  to  us  to-day,  represent- 
atives, probably,  of  all  the  classes  that  have  gone 
forth  from  the  different  departments  during  the 
fifty  years — some,  after  a  short  separation  from 
their  college-home,  having  made  a  brief  experi- 
ment of  life  in  the  outer  world  ;  others,  after  long 
years  of  absence,  which  have  dimmed  their  vision 
and  whitened  their  heads,  bowing  somewhat  under 
the  burdens  they  have  borne.  They  come  from 
all  the  paths  of  earthly  duty  and  service  in  which 
they  have  been  walking,  some  of  which  have  led 
over  the  high  places  of  the  earth,  in  the  sight  of 
men  ;  others  through  obscure  regions,  unobserved 
of  men,  but  under  the  eye  of  God,  with  the  light  of 
his  approval  resting  upon  them.     All   these   the 


26o  O BERLIN-  JUBILEE.     . 

Oberlin  mother  receives  to-day  with  equal  favor, 
because  they  have  done  her  equal  service  and  equal 
honor.  Those  who  went  out  without  the  letters  of 
maternal  commendation,  called  in  advance  of  the 
appointed  time  to  their  work,  did  not  go  without 
the  mothers  blessing,  nor  have  they  wrought 
without  her  approval.  They,  too,  shall  find  a 
warm  welcome  in  the  family  circle  to-day  ;  and 
those  whom  all  these  have  brought  into  the  family, 
adopted  children,  bound  to  our  common  house- 
hold by  the  bonds  of  love,  these  shall  be  made  at 
home.  It  is  the  large-hearted  habit  in  the  Oberlin 
home  to  spread  the  table  for  all  those  who  have 
cast  in  their  lot  with  us. 

And  from  how  many  different  and  distant  parts 
these  scattered  Oberlin  children  return  ! — from  the 
east  and  the  west,  from  the  north  and  the  south, 
from  the  most  distant  regions  of  our  own  land,  and 
from  foreign  shores,  from  the  Indies,  east  and  west, 
from  the  coasts  of  Africa,  and  from  the  remotest  Pa- 
cific islands.  Some  have  made  almost  half  the  cir- 
cuit of  the  earth  in  coming  to  this  home-gathering. 
May  this  homeward-looking  continue  till  the  full 
century  is  rounded  out,  and  onward  with  the  gen- 
erations. Oberlin  is  strong  in  the  faithful,  steadfast 
love  of  her  children.  It  is  a  richer  portion  than 
millions  of  endowment. 

We  welcome,  too,  to-day,  many  citizens  of  other 
days,  whom  the  demands  of  business  have  drawn 
to  other  homes,  in  older  towns,  or  in  the  newer 
west.  They  have  cast  in  their  lot  with  other  com- 
munities, building  up  society  wherever  their  lines 


ADDRESS  OF    WELCOME.  '  26 1 

have  fallen.  They  will  receive  a  cordial  greeting- 
from  their  former  fellow-citizens,  and  will  revive 
the  memories  of  other  days. 

Our  neighbors,  too,  from  the  surrounding  re- 
gion, who  looked  on  with  some  misgiving  when 
strangers  intruded  upon  the  quiet  of  the  forest 
fifty  years  ago,  to  establish  a  colony  and  a  college, 
with  radical  ideas  and  tendencies, — these  have 
gradually  recovered  from  their  surprise  and  un- 
certainty, and  have  accorded  to  Oberlin  a  right  to 
live  according  to  her  own  ideas  ;  and  we  now  wel- 
come them  to  our  jubilee  festivities. 

The  patrons  and  donors  and  friends,  whose  hearty 
confidence  and  words  of  assurance  and  generous 
gifts  have  been  the  strength  of  the  college  through 
all  the  fifty  years,  have  a  hearty  welcome.  Many 
of  these  have  fallen  by  the  way.  Some  who  stood 
by  Oberlin  when  such  friendship  brought  suspicion 
and  reproach  to  themselves,  are  here  to-da}^,  re- 
joicing with  us  that  the  conflict  is  over,  and  that 
suspicion  and  reproach  have  passed  aAvay. 

There  is  a  welcome,  too,  for  any,  if  there  be 
such  an  one,  who  might  have  been  ranked  with  the 
enemies  of  Oberlin.  There  were  good  men  who 
occupied  this  position,  and  thought  they  were 
doing  God  service.  There  was  a  good  old  Scotch 
Presbyterian  minister  in  the  neighborhood  of  Erie, 
Pa.,  who  once  said  in  a  discussion  on  the  floor  of 
his  Presbytery,  "  I  hate  Oberlin  almost  as  much  as 
I  hate  slavery,  and  you  all  know  that  I  hate  slavery 
as  I  hate  the  devil."  Even  that  good  old  hater,  if 
he  were  here  to-day  would   receive  a  welcome  : 


262  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

and  he  would,  doubtless,  be  able  to  accept  the 
welcome.  It  was  misunderstanding,  not  often 
malice,  that  blinded  the  eyes  even  of  good  men. 
We  will  not  mark  even  ''  the  graves  of  these  buried 
prejudices,"  and  the  verdure  of  nature  shall  soon 
hide  them  from  all  eyes. 

We  welcome  to-day  the  representatives  of  other 
institutions  of  learning,  who  bring  us  their  greet- 
ings and  congratulations.  A  few  of  these  have  an 
older  history,  and  passed  their  jubilee  long  ago. 
We  gratefully  accept  their  recognition.  Most  of 
them  are  younger  members  of  the  sisterhood,  look- 
ing forward  for  growth  and  enlargement.  May 
all  their  hopes  and  aspirations  be  realized,  and 
their  day  of  rejoicing  come  before  the  fifty  years 
are  past. 

To  all  who  have  responded  to  the  invitation  to 
the  feast,  Oberlin  gives  her  cordial  welcome ;  and 
to  all  her  children,  who  hold  it  in  their  hearts  to 
come,  but  were  not  permitted,  she  sends  her  assur- 
ance of  continued  confidence,  and  her  benediction. 
For  those  who  have  passed  beyond  our  call,  whose 
names  are  starred  on  the  family  register — noble  men 
and  women,  who  lived  to  serve  God  and  their 
generation — there  are  tender  memories  and  rever- 
ent words.  Their  graves  may  be  found  on  every 
shore,  and  in  every  clime,  where  they  have  fallen 
in  the  conflict  of  life ;  and  how  many  of  their 
graves  lie  along  the  line  of  the  great  battle  be- 
tween freedom  and  slavery,  a  sacrifice  to  the 
country  and  to  God  ! 

You  who  return  to  Oberlin  after  an  absence  of 


ADDRESS  OF    WELCOME.  263 

many  years,  find  many  changes,  some  of  which  are 
pleasant,  and  others  painful.  The  improvement  of 
the  town,  the  dwellings  and  the  lawns,  of  the  col- 
lege buildings  and  grounds,  cannot  be  otherwise 
than  pleasant,  even  though  the  town,  by  reason  ot 
these,  has  taken  on  an  unfamiliar  look.  The  growth 
of  the  trees  along  the  streets  and  in  the  park  gives 
a  surprise,  but  no  unpleasant  sensation.  Some  of 
you  planted,  with  your  own  hands,  the  largest  of 
these  elms, then  slender  saplings  which  you  gath- 
ered from  the  forest— an  illustration  of  the  growth 
of  the  humblest  of  our  good  deeds.  These  things 
you  expected,  and  they  please  you.  But  when 
you  look  for  the  old  buildings,  the  familiar  rooms 
where  you  lived,  or  in  which  you  recited,  and  do 
not  find  them,  you  feel  a  pang,  and  wonder  why 
the  old  has  been  so  ruthlessly  torn  away.  You  do 
not  object  to  the  new,  but  why  not  preserve  the 
old?  This  is  a  feeling  rather  than  a  thought. 
The  old  laboratory  was  sacred  with  the  memories 
of  forty-five  years.  Why  must  it  be  laid  low 
within  two  or  three  months  of  this  anticipated 
jubilee  ?  The  question  of  preserving  it  to  this  day, 
merely  for  these  associations  and  memories,  was 
earnestly  considered  ;  but  an  important  and  needed 
improvement  would  be  seriously  delayed,  and  we 
are  obliged  to  ask  you  to  accept,  in  place  of  me- 
mories, the  hope  and  prospect  of  a  new  and  better 
building,  which  at  the  next  jubilee  shall  be  even 
richer  in  its  memories  and  associations  than  the 
old  laboratory  could  be  to-day.  We  cannot  carry 
on  our  ruins  into  the  new  college  life,  and  thus  the 


264  0 BERLIN  JUBILEE. 

old  must  yield  its  room  to  the  new.  It  is  doubtful 
whether  Tappaii  Hall,  in  its  present  dilapidation, 
can  afford  any  satisfaction  to  those  who  once  found 
it  a  pleasant  home.  It  was  the  purpose  of  those  in 
charge  of  the  matter  to  have  it  in  a  measure  pre- 
sentable for  the  present  occasion,  but  not  to  expend 
money  on  repairs.  If  this  purpose  has  not  been 
realized,  the  failure  must  be  pardoned  in  view  of 
the  multitude  of  things  which  have  required  atten- 
tion. 

But  you  are  more  anxious  about  the  inside  of 
the  college  than  the  outside.  Is  the  work  as  satis- 
factory in  all  essential  features  as  in  former  times? 
Are  the  young  men  and  women  as  earnest  and 
true,  and  thorough-going  as  in  the  days  of  old  ? 
and  do  they  go  out  in  the  same  spirit  and  purpose 
of  aggressive  usefulness  ? 

The  first  impression  you  get  of  the  students  of 
to-day  is  that  they  are  very  young.  But  3^ou  will 
remember,  too,  that  we  were  all  very  young  thirty 
or  forty  or  fifty  years  ago.  The  class  that  grad- 
uated forty-five  years  ago  averaged  but  a  fraction 
of- a  year  more  in  age,  at  their  graduation, than  the 
class  that  graduated  yesterday,  and  this  is  a  fair 
exhibition  of  the  facts  in  the  case:  young  folks 
look  younger  to  us  than  they  did  when  we  were 
young. 

Then,  you  find  the  students,  in  their  recreation, 
on  the  ball-ground  and  in  the  gymnasium,  instead 
of  the  corn-field  and  the  work-shop  ;  and  you  have 
a  misgiving  as  to  their  disposition  or  capacity  to 
do  anything  helpful  or  useful.     The  students  of 


ADDRESS  OF    WELCOME.  265 

former  days  could  build  Cincinnati  Hall,  or  spread 
the  "  Big  Tent,"  as  occasion  required.  The  stu- 
dent of  the  present,  working  a  day  each  in  relays 
of  classes,  under  the  direction  of  a  student  of  the 
Theological  department,  without  any  outside  help, 
built  for  us  this  "  Tabernacle."  Some  of  you, 
taking  your  meals  at  the  Ladies'  Hall,  have  ob- 
served a  number  of  young  men  acting  as  waiters, 
and  you  recalled  the  fact, with  a  sense  of  the  de- 
generacy of  the  times,  that  when  you  were  here 
the  )^oung  women  would  rise  from  the  table,  as 
occasion  required,  and  bring  on  a  new  supply.  If 
you  had  inquired  who  these  young  men  are  with 
white  aprons,  that  serve  you  with  such  a  self- 
respectful  attention,  you  would  have  learned  that 
they  are  members  of  the  advanced  college  classes, 
and  that  several  of  them  graduated  yesterday. 
The  students  of  to-day  are  your  children  in  the 
flesh  and  in  the  spirit,  with  the  same  loyalty 
to  the  College,  and  the  same  loyalty  to  the 
Master.  They  are  ready  for  the  work  that  needs 
to  be  done  in  this  land  and  in  other  lands.  They 
are  following  your  footprints  far  across  the  ''Valley 
of  the  Mississippi,"  into  the  great  "  New  West" 
beyond.  We  thank  you  for  the  perennial  interest 
that  has  brought  you  to  this  jubilee.  In  that  abid- 
ing interest  those  who  are  carrying  forward  the 
work  find  their  earthly  hope  and  reward. 


GENERAL  COX'S  ADDRESS. 

THE  INFLUENCE  OF   OBERLIN   COLLEGE    ON   PUBLIC 

AFFAIRS   DURING  THE   HALF-CENTURY    OF 

ITS   LIFE. 

I  AM  assigned,  in  the  order  of  exercises,  to  the 
delivery  of  the  ''Jubilee  Address,"  and  it  would  be 
a  pleasant  thing  to  spend  my  time  in  earnest  con- 
gratulations on  the  fiftieth  a-nniversary  of  the  Col- 
lege we  so  greatly  love.  It  would  be  easy,  too,  on 
a  "  Fourth  of  July"  morning  to  catch  the  spirit  of 
national  rejoicing  now  resounding  throughout  the 
land,  and  to  give  rein  to  the  emotions  we  feel, 
associating  the  jubilee  of  our  Alma  Mater  with  the 
birthday  of  freedom.  But  those  who  have  had 
charge  of  the  programme  have  wisely  indicated 
the  nature  of  my  task,  and  like  a  dutiful  son,  I 
shall  obe}^ 

My  topic  is  the  influence  of  Oberlin  College  on 
public  affairs  during  the  half-century  of  its  life.  All 
colleges  have  their  influence  on  public  affairs,  but 
it  is  usually  an  indirect  one.  Education  is  without 
party  spirit  or  partisanship.  We  are  commonly 
content  to  trust  for  its  reformatory  power  to  the 
general  effect  of  discussion  and  investigation. 
But  the  student  is  abreast  of  the  progress  of  the 
world  in  knowledge  and  in  mental  training,  and 
we  feel  no  doubt  he  will  soon  aspire  to  something 


GENERAL    COX'S  ADDRESS,  267 

higher  and  greater.  He  will  be  ambitious  for  his 
kind  as  well  as  for  himself ;  his  own  growth  will 
give  him  broader  views  and  wider  sympathies,  and 
thus  it  will  happen,  as  it  has  happened,  that  the 
most  effective  support  and  advocacy  of  true  pro- 
gress will  come  from  those  who  have  been  liberally 
educated.  Not  that  there  is  no  conservative  ele- 
ment in  education ;  for  we  well  know  that  there 
is — a  conservatism  that  may  become  bigotry,  and 
that  may  be  the  champion  of  inveterate  prejudice 
and  the  foe  to  change. 

But  it  is  usually  from  the  younger  class  of  edu- 
cated men,  full  of  the  enthusiasm  of  conscious 
growth  and  of  the  relish  for  new  ideas,  that  young 
reforms  recruit  their  ablest  soldiers.  As  human 
affairs  move  with  great  but  slow  pulsations,  a  never- 
ending  flow  of  ebb  and  tide,  the  generation  of 
young  scholars  which  comes  upon  the  stage  when 
a  new  movement  is  gathering  force  will  naturally 
be  the  master-spirits  of  their  time. 

It  is  not,  however,  in  this  general  sense  that  I 
propose  to  treat  the  connection  of  Oberlin  with 
the  history  of  the  past  fifty  years.  This  institution 
of  learning  shared  with  its  sister  colleges  this  good 
work ;  but  it  had  also  a  specific  character  of  its 
own.  It  was  the  organized  representation  of  defi- 
nite ideas  of  reform  when  these  ideas  were  essen- 
tial ones  in  a  movement  which  culminated  in  a 
great  public  convulsion,  and  changed  the  funda- 
mental laws  as  well  as  the  institutions  of  the  coun- 
try. We  are  not  to  inquire  what  this  or  that  grad- 
uate of  Oberlin  did  ;  but  what  was  the  effect  upon 


268  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

the  country  of  the  principles  openly  mid  systemat- 
ically taught  here  ?  How  was  the  founding  of  such 
a  school  regarded  ?  What  was  its  relation  to  the 
questions  which  then  agitated  the  public  mind  ? 
and  what  did  the  college  do  toward  solving 
them  ? 

The  subject  as  I  view  it  takes  almost  the  shape 
of  a  chapter  in  the  constitutional  history  of  the 
country,  and  tempts  us  to  what  may  prove,  I 
hope,  an  instructive  and  not  uninteresting  analysis 
of  some  of  the  causes  which  have  co-operated  to 
bring  about  great  governmental  changes. 

The  great  question  of  the  day  was  the  shameful 
inconsistency,  the  grievous  wrong,  of  basing  a  dem- 
ocratic republic  upon  human  slavery.  Beginning 
with  a  very  general  admission  of  the  indefensible 
character  of  the  institution,  those  who  profited  or 
thought  they  profited  by  it,  hastened  to  defend  it. 
Whilst  we  were  asking  the  civilized  world  to  ac- 
knowledge our  right  to  self-government,  it  was 
necessary  to  apologize  for  negro  slavery  and  to 
promise  that  it  should  be  short-lived ;  but  we 
passed  rapidly  from  that  phase  of  the  question  to 
the  Southern  demand  for  its  extension,  and  the 
bold  avowal  of  the  purpose  to  make  it  perpetual. 

Looked  at  with  reference  to  the  history  of  the 
national  controversy,  Oberlin  was  born  at  the  be- 
ginning of  a  new  and  important  epoch.  Andrew 
Jackaon  was  at  the  summit  of  his  power,  had  just 
been  elected  President  for  a  second  term,  and  was 
the  autocrat  of  the  great  Democratic  party.  Both 
he  and  the  party  were  committed  to  the  pro-slavery 


GENERAL    COX'S  ADDRESS.  269 

view  of  the  Constitution,  and  had  no  toleration  for 
the  handful  of  unpopular  fanatics  who  were  probT 
ing  the  conscience  of  thinking-  men  in  the  Northern 
States,  and  rousing  them  to  an  unwilling  sense  of 
the  responsibility  of  the  whole  people  for  the  sin 
of  slavery.  But  face  to  face  with  Jackson,  and  his 
rival  in  the  leadership  of  the  party,  was  Calhoun, 
the  apostle  of  the  extreme  Southern  doctrine  of 
the  right  of  nullification.  A  subtler  intellect  than 
Jackson's,  an  equally  daring  leader,  a  truer  repre- 
sentative of  the  Confederate  theory  of  the  Constitu- 
tion as  opposed  to  the  national  view,  and  therefore 
a  better  representative  of  the  South,  Calhoun  was 
conscious  of  being  the  only  consistent  and  logical 
expounder  of  Jefferson's  Virginia  and  Kentucky 
resolutions  of  1798,  and  made  no  hesitation  in  ex- 
pressing the  scorn  he  felt  for  the  unionism  of 
Jackson. 

All  the  Southern  men  who  meant  to  make  the 
perpetuity  of  slavery  and  its  extension  the  con- 
dition of  the  perpetuity  of  the  Union  (and  they 
were  all  the  most  active  and  courageous  politicians 
there)  knew  in  their  hearts  that  Calhoun  was  their 
proper  mouthpiece  ;  but  many  of  them  still  nursed 
a  belief  that  they  would  be  able  to  control  the 
machinery  of  the  government  and  secure  their  ob- 
ject without  so  sharp  a  collision  with  the  feelings 
of  national  patriotism  which  were  strong  in  both 
sections  of  the  country. 

Then,  ascain,  Calhoun  made  the  mistake  a  doc- 
trinaire is  prone  to,  of  testing  his  nullification  in  a 
controversy  upon  a  question  of  mere  economics, 


270  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

instead  of  saving  it  for  the  slavery  struggle,  which 
alone  could  rouse  the  passions  enough  to  make 
revolution  tolerable,  even  to  his  followers.  He  may 
even  have  thought  that  he  elevated  his  doctrine  to 
a  general  principle  when  he  applied  it  to  revenue 
laws  which  discriminated  against  the  interests  of 
South  Carolina ;  but  the  event  proved  how  grave 
a  mistake  it  is  for  apolitical  leader  to  stake  success 
upon  the  willingness  of  men  to  overturn  a  govern- 
ment for  the  sake  of  logical  consistency,  when  the 
practical  questions  at  issue  have  but  a  common- 
place and  rather  colorless  interest  for  them.  The 
noteworthy  result  of  this  contest  was  not  so  much 
the  defeat  of  Calhoun  upon  the  tariff  question  and 
his  diminished  importance  in  his  own  party,  as  the 
committal  of  Northern  Democrats  to  a  broader 
view  of  the  constitution — a  committal  that  was  to 
bear  priceless  fruit  when  the  real  tug  of  war  should 
come.  To  meet  his  arguments  there  was  nothing 
for  it  but  to  accept  the  logical  weapons  which 
Webster  forged  for  them,  and,  distasteful  as  it 
might  be,  to  range  themselves  under  his  intellect- 
ual leadership-  when  he  proclaimed  the  United 
States  a  nation  whose  constitution  was  promulgated 
by  its  whole  people  as  an  organic  law,  which  only 
a  successful  rebellion  could  abrogate.  The  Web- 
sterian  arguments  had  vigorous  life  added  to  them 
by  Jackson's,  ''  The  Union,  it  must  and  shall  be 
preserved,"  and  a  keen  observer  might  have  got 
some  foresight  of  the  enthusiasm  for  the  flag  which 
was  to  sweep  the  country,  when  madness,  trying 
to  maintain  a  wrong  which  had  already  lived  cen- 


GENERAL    COX'S  ADDRESS.  2/1 

turies  beyond  its  time,  broke  into  open  war  upon 
the  government. 

The  Unionism  of  that  day,  however,  was  quite 
consistent  with  a  very  general  dishke  of  Abolition- 
ism, Indeed,  one  of  the  strongest  arguments  used 
to  quiet  the  Southern  revolutionists  was  the  ex- 
pectation that  abandonment  of  the  doctrines  of  nul- 
lification and  secession  would  enable  Northern  con- 
servatives in  church  and  state  to  squelch  the  anti- 
slavery  agitation.  It  was  natural  that  the-  most 
earnest  debate  should  be  in  the  Northern  church. 
Here,  there  was  no  UvSe  denying  that  slavery  was  a 
gross  inconsistency  with  Republican  government, 
and  that  it  was  a  terrible  hindrance  to  progress  in 
everything  which  modern  civilization  prizes.  But 
was  the  institution  necessarily  sinful,  and  should  it 
be  a  matter  of  conscience  to  agitate  the  question 
of  its  restriction  or  abolition  by  national  legislation  ? 
It  is  amusing  to  think  with  what  warm  zeal  ser- 
mons were  preached  on  the  one  side  from  the 
apostolic  exhortation, ''  Art  thou  called  being  a  ser- 
vant ?  Care  not  for  it,"  and  upon  the  other  from 
the  remainder  of  the  text,  "  but  if  thou  mayst  be 
made  free,  use  it  rather."  The  guilty  "  conscience 
which  makes  cowards  of  us  all,"  exaggerated  in 
the  South  the  danger  of  an  insurrection,  and  the 
apprehension  of  its  perils  and  horrors  gave  a  pas- 
sionate intensity  to  a  controversy  which  would 
have  been  bitter  enough  at  best. 

It  was  in  the  midst  of  this  fierce  revival  of  an 
agitation  that  was  not  to  be  quieted  or  ended  but  in 
the  extinction  of  slavery  at  the  end  of  fearful  civil 


2/2  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

war,  that  Oberlin  was  founded.  Its  founders  meant 
that  it  should  be  a  Christian  school  of  learning,  and 
they  purposely  established  it  in  a  wilderness  that 
it  might  give  its  own  character  to  the  community 
which  should  grow  up  about  it,  and  retain  its  indi- 
viduality and  power  instead  of  taking  color  and 
being  controlled  by  the  influences  of  some  laiger 
and  stronger  society,  in  which  it  might  have  been 
placed.  It  was  not  only  to  be  a  Christian  school, 
but  a  school  for  the  poor.  The  farmers'  sons 
awd  daughters  of  the  sparsely-settled  West  needed 
education  which  they  themselves  could  somehow 
pay  for;  and  no  plan  seemed  so  likely  to  bring  it 
home  to  them  as  to  open  a  manual-labor  school  on 
a  tract  of  wild  land  still  unreclaimed,  amidst  the 
more  eligible  farming  towns  of  the  Western  Re- 
serve. The  work  was  to  be  a  self-sacrificing  work 
on  the  part  of  the  teachers,  who  were  to  be  pastors 
of  the  flock  as  well  as  instructors  in  human  learn- 
ing, and  I  have  always  thought  it  a  happy  inspira- 
tion which  made  them  name  their  new  settlement 
after  the  devoted  pastor  in  the  little  parish  in  the 
Vosge-s,  who  had  taught  the  world  a  lesson  in  the 
art  of  elevating  a  community  by  a  wonderful 
mingling  of  learning  and  humihty,  faith  and  works, 
precept  and  laborious  example. 

If  we  had  known  nothing  of  those  first  founders 
but  by  their  work,  we  should  still  be  sure  that  they 
were  men  of  deepest  earnestness,  of  unfaltering 
courage.  Put  such  a  band  of  workers  in  the  wild 
woods,  where  they  reproduced  many  of  the  char- 
acteristics of  the  first  pilgrim  settlement  of  New 


GENERAL    COX'S  ADDRESS.  273 

England,  and  where  they  were  surrounded  by 
many  of  the  things  which  made  at  once  the  pil- 
grims' trials  and  their  strength,  and  it  was  pretty 
sure  that  they  would  make  their  mark  upon  the 
world's  moral  history  ''The  hour  and  the  man" 
conspire  to  bring  about  great  events,  and  here  in 
the  little  clearing  in  the  flat  woodlands  of  Lorain, 
with  hardly  a  passable  road  out  in  any  direction, 
was  a  society  and  a  school  in  just  such  relations  to 
the  time  and  the  great  problems  which  agitated  it, 
as  to  furnish  one  of  God's  opportunities. 

Hardly  had  the  colonists  weathered  their  first 
winter  and  begun  to  look  about  them  for  Provi- 
dential indications  of  the  next  duty,  when  the 
ripening  era  precipitated  new  questions  upon 
them.  The  now  famous  Lane  Seminary  rebels 
came,  asking,  ''  Is  there  no  place  where  students 
of  theology  may  be  free  to  denounce  with  un- 
sparing zeal,  the  great  wrong  of  our  time — slav- 
ery ?"  The  answer  was,  ''Here,  if  no  other  will 
offer."  Whipple,  Thome,  Streeter  and  Clark,  and 
their  companions,  felled  the  trees,  and  made  their 
own  log  hall  on  the  edge  of  the  clearing.  The 
infant  college  was  embarrassed  by  finding  on  its 
hands  a  theological  seminary  where  it  had  reck- 
oned only  upon  junior  preparatory  students  ;  but 
the  event  attracted  the  eyes  of  the  country  and  of 
the  world.  Cowles,  Mahan,  Morgan  and  Finney 
hastened  to  join  Dascomb  and  Shipherd,  who  were 
already  here,  and  Oberlin  became  at  once  Oberlin. 
It  was  a  little  place,  but  a  power  greater  than  any 
Archimedes  had   at  command  was  lookinsr  for  a 


274  OBERLIN  JUBILEE, 

Ttov  (TTw  for  a  lever  outside  the  world,  and  here  it 
found  it;  behold  how  little  room  was  needed  for 
a  fulcrum  for  great  moral  forces! 

Nor  was  it  in  America  alone  that  the  common 
conscience  of  intelligent  people  had  been  laboring 
with  the  problem  of  duty  to  the  slave.  The  work 
of  Wilberforce,  Macaulay,  and  other  English  abo- 
litionists had  just  triumphed  in  the  West  India 
emancipation,  and  they  gave  to  the  anti-slavery 
men  of  this  country  both  the  aid  of  their  system- 
atic methods  of  agitation  and  the  heartiest  encou- 
ragement by  voice  and  by  money. 

The  philanthropists  of  Great  Britain  were, 
therefore,  watching  American  progress  in  free- 
dom, with  great  interest ;  and  their  own  experi- 
ence in  dealing  with  the  sophisms  of  interested 
planters,  and  with  their  advocates  in  the  legisla- 
ture and  in  the  pulpit,  gave  them  a  lively  appre- 
ciation of  the  peculiar  phase  the  struggle  now 
took  on.  The  contest  was  a  world's  contest, 
setting  both  hemispheres  on  fire,  and  nothing  was 
done  in  a  corner.  The  petty  village  or  stream 
where  the  forces  met  in  battle  might  have  been 
never  so  insignificant  till  then,  but  afterward  the 
world  would  never  forget  its  Waterloo,  its  Borodi- 
no, its  Gravelotte,  its  Bunker  Hill.  Here,  too,  will 
strangers  come  on  pilgrimages,  and  trying  to 
realize  the  picture  of  the  primitive  settlement  in 
the  wilderness  fifty  years  ago,  will  wonder  at  the 
Providential  disposition  which  made  it  a  famous 
battle-field  in  the  war  with  human  slavery. 

The   historian   Von    Hoist   only   expresses   the 


GENERAL   COX'S  ADDRESS.  275 

common  opinion  of  students  all  over  the  world,  in 
making-  the  relation  of  our  national  government 
to  slavery  the  only  constitutional  question,  worthy 
of  the  name,  which  has  arisen  in  the  United  States 
since  our  independence  was  acknowledged. 

National  authority  and  States  rights  would  not 
have  been  heard  of  but  for  this.  The  features  of 
our  Constitution,  which  were  the  pretext  for  the 
theory  of  a  confederacy  terminable  by  any  of  the 
States  at  will,  would  never  have  been  in  it  but 
for  the  slave-power  and  interest.  Avowedly  or 
covertly  this  has  been  the  real  centre  of  political 
action,  and  from  the  time  of  which  we  are  speak- 
ing, the  controlling  force  in  the  organization  and 
action  of  political  parties.  In  fighting  out  the 
great  debate  two  theatres  of  operation  had  to  be 
occupied,  though  it  is  hard  to  define  very  closely 
their  confines.  The  fields  of  politics  and  of  morals, 
the  State  and  the  Church,  were  equally  shaken 
with  the  shock  of  colliding  forces.  Excitement  rose 
high ;  it  may  not  be  too  strong  a  word  to  say  it 
raged  in  both.  Yet  political  parties  (I  mean  the 
great  and  powerful  ones)  pretended  to  ignore  the 
only  burning  question  of  the  day,  and  ecclesiasti- 
cal organizations  resolved  that  it  ought  not  to  be 
debated.  But  it  would  be  debated.  Debating 
whether  it  should  be  debated  turned  out  to  be  the 
quintessence  of  the  agitation,  involving,  in  spite 
of  you,  all  the  probing,  and  the  most  exciting 
treatment  of  the  whole  subject.  It  was  in  the  air, 
and  you  might  as  well  try  to  ignore  the  influence 
of  a  contagious  epidemic  as  to  ignore  this.     The 


2/6  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

"  thing  was  of  God,"  in  short,  and  the  most  trifling 
events  were  big  with  resuhs. 

A  majority  of  a  board  of  trustees  in  Cincinnati 
thought  they  would  help  to  allay  the  popular 
excitement  by  forbidding  the  Lane  Seminary  stu- 
dents to  discuss  the  slavery  question.  Some  of 
the  professors  are  said  to  have  had  the  sagacity  to 
see  that  this  was  unwise,  but  they  were  overruled. 
The  young  men  were,  a  number  of  them,  southern 
men,  whose  awakened  consciences  made  the  ques- 
tion an  all-absorbing  practical  one  to  them,  involv- 
ing such  jcommanding  issues  of  personal  duty  that 
each,  with  irrepressible  emotion,  was  crying  out: 
"  Woe  is  me  if  I  miss  the  truth  in  this  matter." 
And  so  the  seminary  rebellion  came,  and  "  Cincin- 
nati Hall "  was  built  of  logs  and  slabs  in  the  woods 
across  the  green  yonder,  and  the  noble  men  who 
had  gathered  as  teachers  and  taught,  backed  by 
the  Tappans  of  New  York,  by  Stewart,  by  Chapin 
of  Providence,  by  Sears  of  Boston,  and  by  other 
men  of  earnest  rehgious  character  and  strong  anti- 
slavery  principles,  raised  the  insignificant  little 
school  in  the  wilderness  to  the  position  of  a  power 
in  a  great  national  struggle,  from  this  time  forth 
well  known  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic. 

In  referring  to  the  action  of  the  trustees  and 
faculty  of  Lane  Seminary,  I  am  under  no  embar- 
rassment from  the  presence  of  our  greatly  re- 
spected guest  from  that  institution  (Professor 
Eells).  He  and  his  colleagues  are  of  one  heart 
and  mind  with  us  in  regard  to  the  great  contest 
for  freedom,  and  are  as  sincerely  in  sympathy  with 


GENERAL    COX'S  ADDRESS.  2^) 

the  principles  which  Obeilin  advocated  as  the 
great  EngHsh  statesmen  of  the  present  day  are 
with  the  principles  of  human  rights,  which  led 
to  our  fathers*  Declaration  of  Independence.  If 
Gladstone  and  John  Bright  were  here  to-day,  so 
far  from  objecting  to  the  rejoicing  of  the  nation 
over  the  establishment  of  its  separate  life,  they 
would  show  that  they  understand,  better  perhaps 
than  we,  the  error  of  those  English  statesmen  of 
1776,  which  caused  the  separation  from  the  mother 
country,  and  might  even  teach  us  lessons  in  the 
principles  of  free  representative  government,  for 
which  our  fathers  fought.  As  little  shall  I  fear 
dissent  from  a  Lane  Seminary  professor  of  to-day, 
when  I  refer  to  the  error  of  its  Board,  in  1835,  as 
one  of  the  means  providentially  used  to  further 
the  work  of  emancipation,  and  to  give  Oberlin 
greatly  increased  prominence  and  influence  in  the 
great  reform. 

Of  course,  the  part  Oberlin  Avas  to  take  was  in 
great  measure  confined  to  the  moral  and  educa- 
tional phases  of  the  conflict,  and  in  these  we  must 
find  the  chief  significance  and  importance  of  its 
work.  Not  that  it  held  aloof  from  political  action, 
for  it  heartily  supported  every  movement  which 
promised  to  put  the  legislation  and  administration 
of  the  country  in  better  accord  with  the  principles 
of  liberty. 

It  has  ever  had  in  public  life  men  who  may  be 
called  its  special  representatives,  like  Professors 
Peck  and  Monroe,  who  carried  into  national  affairs 
the    convictions    and    purposes    which    specially 


278  OB E RUN  JUBILEE. 

marked  this  community,  and  as  its  local  repre- 
sentatives gave  voice  to  them  in  an  authentic  and 
official  manner,  which  has  been  recognized  by  the 
country.  But  this  w^as  incidental  to  the  specific 
work  of  the  schoo-1,  which  was  to  educate  the  in- 
telligence and  the  conscience  of  the  people  till 
legislation  and  governmental  action  in  behalf  of 
freedom  should  be  the  necessary  response  of  legis- 
lator and  ruler  to  an  imperative  popular  demand. 

The  founders  of  the  college  clearly  saw  that  to 
make  their  influence  strong  and  durable,  there 
must  be  no  doubt  or  question  about  their  own 
consistency  in  principle  or  practice.  As  they  had 
firmly  seized  and  tenaciously  held  the  principle  of 
the  equality  of  all  men  before  the  law,  so  they 
accepted  without  hesitation  the  corollary  that  they 
must  refuse  the  benefits  of  the  higher  education 
to  no  one  by  reason  of  prejudice  against  his  race. 
The  public  adoption  of  this  rule  signalized  the 
enlargement  of  the  college  faculty  in  1835.  They 
did  not  mean  to  be  met  by  the  ancient  taunt, 
*'  Thou  that  sayest '  Thou  shalt  not  steal,'  dost  thou 
steal."  They  preferred  to  be  met  by  the  storm  of 
misrepresentation  and  obloquy  which  they  knew 
would  follow.  It  was  Luther's  decision  over 
again.  *'  Here  I  stand,  naught  else  can  I  do ;  God 
help  me!"  It  does  not  appear  that  they  w^ere 
arrogant  in  setting  a  rule  for  all  others,  in  all  cir- 
cumstances. They  only  said,  "  For  us  who  mean 
to  be  quite  free  from  all  embarrassments  in  our 
struggle  for  human  rights  against  the  great  sin  of 
oppression,  it  will  not  do  to  shut  our  doors  against 


GENERAL    COX'S  ADDRESS,  2/0 

any  poor  youth  who  may  come  seeking  the  treas- 
ures of  knowledge. '*  Social  questions  they  dis- 
tinctly left  to  the  domain  of  personal  predilection 
and  tastes,  sure  that  true  education  in  mind  and 
heart  would  not  be  likely  to  lead  in  any  wrong 
way. 

The  storm  came.  Tliey  were  charged  with 
teaching  and  advocating  amalgamation.  It  was 
but  a  step  to  add  the  imputation  of  immorality 
and  all  vileness.  They  were  to  be  tabooed, 
shunned ;  they  might  be  glad  if  they  were  not 
mobbed!  How  almost  ludicrous  it  seems  to 
those  of  us  who  can  remember  any  part  of  that 
early  period,  to  contrast  these  bugbears  of  a  wide- 
spread opinion  with  the  common-sense,  the  pure 
lives,  the  prudent  deportment,  the  precautions 
against  license  not  only  but  even  against  indis- 
cretion, which  marked,  and,  let  us  be  thankful,  has 
always  continued  to  mark  the  collegiate  rule  of 
the  Faculty  and  the  managing  boards.  Again,  it 
was  proved  that  in  moral  agitation  a  calm  and 
Avise  consistency  is  a  condition  of  really  great 
influence.  The  truth  gradually  dispelled  the 
slanders  and  misapprehensions,  and  the  institution 
like  an  immovable  body  in  the  moral  universe, 
began  to  be  felt  among  the  larger  bodies,  and  to 
modify  their  courses  long  before  they  were  aware 
of  it. 

Still  another  test  of  the  wisdom  and  of  the  reli- 
gious principle  of  the  Faculty  was  to  follow  before 
the  position  of  the  College  could  be  said  to  be  fully 
established.     Recognized    as    radical   in    its    anti- 


280  OBERLIM  JUBILEE. 

slavery  earnestness,  it  had  now  to  meet  the  criti- 
cism of  the  extreme  wing  of  the  reform  movement, 
consisting  of  men  who,  finding  the  church  slow  to 
adopt  the  view  that  slavery  was  in  itself  a  sin, 
had  themselves  rushed  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
church  was  the  great  bulwark  of  the  wrong,  and 
must  be  battered  down  to  reach  it.  In  this  phase 
of  the  debate,  as  in  the  preceding  ones,  the  Ober- 
lin  men  kept  their  balance,  and  showed  that  they 
had  a  broader  view  of  the  horizon  and  a  stronger 
grasp  of  the  subject  than  their  critics.  Because 
they  agreed  with  the  extremists  in  regard  to  the 
intrinsic  wrong  of  the  slave  system,  they  were  not 
ready  to  deny  all  goodness  to  those  who  apolo- 
gized for  it.  Because  the  church  at  first  summons 
did  not  join  the  advance  guard  of  the  reformers, 
they  would  not  "curse  God  and  die."  They  held, 
as  theologians,  that  all  sin  was  unnecessary,  but 
they  never  tried  to  limit  the  church  to  those  who 
attained  impeccable  perfection.  They  were  con- 
tent to  fellowship  those  whose  dominant  purposes 
were  right,  and  who  honestly  struggled  as  they 
themselves  did,  to  get  the  mastery  of  temptation, 
and  to  make  their  lapses  from  grace  less  frequent. 
They  therefore  did  not  respond  to  the  cry  ''  come 
out  from  among  them,"  when  it  was  used  as  an 
exhortation  to  treat  the  Christian  church  as  a 
failure,  and  to  denounce  it  as  apostate  from  all 
truth.  They  had  and  were  daily  having  rough 
experience  of  bigoted  denunciation  of  themselves, 
and  were  hard  pressed  to  it  to  find  their  Master's 
spirit  in  the  way  in  which  they  were  treated  by 


,     GENERAL    COX'S  ADDRESS.  28 1 

those  who  assumed  to  be  their  more  orthodox 
brethren ;  but  they  made  allowance  for  human 
infirmity,  and  regarded  the  time  as  one  calling  for 
bold  preaching  of  the  truth  as  they  saw  it,  and 
for  plain  dealing  with  the  brethren  whom  they 
thought  unjust  and  misguided;  but  it  was  not  a 
time  for  schism,  or  for  denial  that  there  was  a 
true  church  upon  the  earth.  There  was  no  "  trim- 
ming" in  this ;  they  were  simply  more  philosophi- 
cal in  their  analysis  of  right  and  duty,  and  more 
logical  in  this  than  their  opponents  on  either  hand. 
They  drew  their  conclusions  from  a  wider  survey 
of  all  the  facts,  and  were  thereby  secured  from 
eccentric  courses.  Looking  back  on  all  this  we 
are  sometimes  inclined  to  speak  of  it  as  a  singular 
mingling  of  radicalism  and  conservatism  ;  but  it  is 
justice  to  say  that  the  apparent  conservatism  was 
the  result  of  real  radicalism,  for  they  fearlessly 
applied  their  principles,  and  were  at  once  logical 
and  sagacious.  They  made  a  proper  composition 
of  all  the  forces  which  were  working  for  good,  and 
the  result  was  nearly  a  straight  line;  whereas  it 
would  have  been  easy  to  have  been  driven  in 
queer  zig-zags  if  they  had  yielded  now  to  this  and 
now  to  that  impulse.  They  said  they  were  led  by 
a  higher  wisdom,  but  they  also  acknowledged  the 
practical  duty  of  sparing  no  pains  to  understand 
the  strange  problem  the  country  was  laboring 
with,  and  to  use  their  heads  as  well  as  their  hearts. 
Hence  it  came  that  when  the  struggle  was  over, 
and  church  and  state  were  rejoicing  in  the  new 
era,  when    our    country's    constitution   came   into 


282  0 BERLIN  JUBILEE. 

fullest  harmony  with  the  rights  of  man,  they  had 
no  need  to  orient  themselves  anew.  They  simply 
thanked  God  that  the  end  was  reached,  which  their 
faith  had  never  let  them  despair  of,  and  for  which 
they  had  labored  with  patient  and  intelligent  zeal. 
It  was  nearly  forty  years  since  they  had  entered 
the  wilderness,  and  every  morning  had  found  them 
ready  to  strike  their  tents  and  move  at  the  head  of 
the  people,  when  the  pillar  of  cloud  went  forward. 
Such,  as  I  look  at  it,  w-ere  the  general  relations 
of  Oberlin  to  the  greatest  problem  in  public  affairs 
which  our  country  has  known,  or  is  likely  to 
know ;  but  the  story  is  only  half  told.  It  is  not 
enough  to  recall  the  circumstances  which  gave 
importance  to  the  attitude  of  the  school  in  the 
eyes  of  the  world,  and  to  picture  to  ourselves  the 
principles  and  the  characteristics  of  the  men  who 
were  its  founders.  We  must  also  look  at  the 
methods  they  used  ;  the  mental  and  personal  dis 
cipline  they  enforced ;  the  spirit  of  the  several 
departments  of  education  ;  how  these  came  in  con- 
tact with  the  world  to  influence  it,  and  the  extent 
and  kind  of  influence  they  exerted.  No  one  at  aU 
acquainted  with  the  history  of  education  will  deny 
that  the  influence  of  Oberlin  continued  to  increase 
for  many  years ;  that  down  to  the  outbreak  of  the 
great  rebellion,  it  not  only  maintained  the  prestige 
of  its  early  days,  but  was  a  steadily  growing 
power.  No  ^clat  at  the  origin  of  such  a  school 
will  account  for  this ;  the  noise  made  about  it  in 
1835  would  have  proved  a  mere  windy  notoriety,  as 
evanescent  as  that  of  the  latest  discovered  candi- 


GENERAL   COX'S  ADDRESS.  283 

date  for  the  Presidency,  if  there  had  not  been  the 
capacity  and  the  will  for  solid,  patient  work  behind 
it,  and  an  inflexible  purpose  to.  make  the  proper 
work  of  the  college  none  the  less  efficient  because 
of  its  zeal  for  reform. 

As  it  was  the  advent  of  a  theological  class  which 
was  the  striking  event  in  its  earliest  history,  the 
theological  department  was  naturally  uppermost 
in  the  mind  of  Mr.  Fmney  and  his  associates  when 
they  resolved  to  come  here.  They  were  deeply 
moved  with  a  desire  to  prepare  young  men  to 
preach  the  gospel,  by  teaching  them  to  view  its 
great  truths  in  accordance  with  what  was  known 
as  the  ''  new  school  philosophy,"  based  upon  the 
doctrine  of  the  freedom  of  the  will  and  of  man's 
personal  moral  responsibility  as  deduced  from  it. 
They  had  seen  the  tremendous  effect  upon  the 
consciences  and  the  conduct  of  men  of  being  able  to 
say,  you  are  commanded  to  obey  the  Divine  law, 
and  are  responsible  for  disobedience,  because  when 
your  weaknesses  and  your  powers  are  both  fully 
reckoned,  the  assistance  divinely  offered  makes 
your  obedience  possible.  They  believed  that  the 
clear,  logical  teaching  of  a  view  of  the  moral 
government  of  the  universe  based  upon  this,  in 
their  opinion,  vital  truth,  would  give  a  fresh  and 
wholesome  energy  to  all  preaching  and  teaching. 
It  increased  the  power  of  all  legitimate  appeals  to 
conscience,  and  broke  down  many  barriers  in  the 
way  of  vigorous  progress,  which  they,  in  pithy 
Scripture  phrase,  called  "  refuges  of  lies."  It  is 
quite  outside  my  province  to  discuss  their  theo- 


284  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

logical  opinions — that  has  already  been  admirably 
done;  but,  unless  I  should  thus  refer  to  what 
seems  to  me  its  characteristic  feature,  I  think  1 
should  miss  a  controlling  element  in  the  history  of 
the  College,  which  it  would  not  be  far  wrong  to 
call  the  masterpiece  of  all  its  action.  Their  un- 
compromising devotion  to  reforms  of  all  sorts,  so 
far  as  they  thought  them  true  reforms,  was  really 
based  on  this  principle — fighting  with  might  and 
main  against  all  wrong.  Slavery  only  happened 
to  be  the  demon  wrong  at  that  moment  in  the  way, 
and  at  it  they  went,  hke  Christian  in  ''Pilgrim's 
Progress,"  never  doubting  that  though  sore  be- 
stead, they  should  at  last  be  given  the  victory. 

It  was  a  great  thing  for  a  young  college  to  have 
such  a  class  of  theological  students  as  those  that 
first  came  to  Oberlin.  That  they  were  men  of  no 
common  character  was  shown  by  the  way  they 
came  and  what  moved  them  to  come.  They  were, 
besides,  scholars  of  no  small  cultivation,  and  some 
of  them  of  culture  and  grasp  that  would  have 
made  them  distinguished  anywhere.  The  young 
preparatory  students  looked  up  to  them  with  a 
respect  second  only  to  what  they  felt  for  the 
Faculty.  They  were  men  who  had  already  been 
tested  as  by  fire,  and  were  visible  examples  of 
what  true  education  should  make  a  man  and  of  the 
way  it  should  fit  him  to  meet  the  questions  of  life. 
With  such  a  class  of  elder  students,  the  institution 
took  on  at  once  a  deep  earnestness  of  purpose  that 
was  its  most  distinctive  mark.  Here  was  no  place 
for  a  dawdler;  education  was  onlv  the  school  of  a 


GENERAL   COX'S  ADDRESS.  28$ 

soldier,  proving  the  weapons  with  which  he  was 
soon  to  fight  for  life,  and  for  truth  worth  more  than 
life.  When  actual  civil  war  came  at  last,  men 
stood  amazed  at  the  intense  depth  of  emotion^vith 
which  the  whole  country  went  into  the  struggle ; 
but  in  fact  the  uncalculating  devotion  of  1861  was 
here  in  1835,  the  same  appreciation  of  the  despe- 
rate character  of  the  contest,  the  same  conviction 
that  life  would  not  be  worth  living  if  we  were 
beaten  in  it,  the  same  certainty  of  belief  that  the 
cause  was  God's,  and  the  issue  the  triumph'or  the 
wreck  of  all  the  aspirations  of  the  human  race. 
The  young  man  or  young  woman  who  came  here 
was  either  poor  and  seeking  the  means  of  an  edu- 
cation cheaply,  or  was  drawn  hither  by  half- 
formed  sympathy  on  his  own  or  his  parents'  part 
with  the  spirit  of  the  place.  In  either  case  if  there 
was  the  stuff  to  build  on,  the  first  year  was  enough 
to  insure  catching  the  zeal  that  was  endemic. 

The  theological  classes  spent  their  vacations  in 
preaching  or  anti-slavery  lecturing,  and  whether 
preaching  or  lecturing  the  absorbing  topic  of  the 
time  was  rarely  absent  from  their  thoughts  or 
speech.  The  undergraduate  classes  in  college 
were  also  men  of  more  maturity  than  the  average 
of  such  students  in  other  colleges.  They  were 
nearly  all  poor,  and  many  of  them  quite  dependent 
upon  their  own  exertions  for  support,  and  this 
class  of  students  had  to  wait  for  advanced  educa- 
tion till  they  could  save  the  means  to  pay  for  it,  or 
reach  an  age  when  they  could  make  teaching  in 
the  common  schools  furnish   the  wherewithal  to 


286  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

keep  the  wolf  from  the  door  in  their  alternate 
terms  of  study.  The  college  terms  were  arranged 
to  suit  such  students,  who  were  a  large  majority 
of  the  whole,  and  the  long  vacation  was,  as  we  all 
know,  placed  in  the  winter  for  this  reason.  From 
the  preparatory  classes  upward,  and  in  both  the 
collegiate  and  ladies'  departments,  all  the  hun- 
dreds of  earnest  young  people  who  thronged  here 
were  already  active  workers  in  life.  Each  of  them 
had  his  scores  of  younger  minds  upon  whom  for 
some  months  in  the  year  he  was  impressing  his 
own  zeal  for  knowledge,  not  onl}^,  but  his  own  in- 
tense earnestness  in  the  great  public  questions  of 
reform.  Every  debating  society  formed  in  a  coun- 
try hamlet  was  a  platform  from  which  the  politics 
of  the  country  took  shape,  and  where  the  men 
were  formed  and  instructed  who  became  delegates 
to  nominating  conventions  and  created  the  public 
sentiment  which  soon  began  to  find  its  echo  in 
Congress.  It  mattered  little  whether  a  represent- 
ative was  a  Whig  or  Democrat,  it  soon  became 
apparent  that  there  was  a  considerable  number  of 
districts  in  the  Northwest  where  no  man's  re- 
election was  safe  if  he  defied  or  disappointed  the 
rapidly-growing  anti-slavery  sentiment  of  his  con- 
stituents. It  would  be  hard  to  overestimate  the 
part  in  this  work  which  was  taken  by  Oberlin  stu- 
dents. Remember  that  they  numbered  by  hundreds 
at  an  early  day,  and  soon  exceeded  a  thousand. 
Each  autumn  they  swarmed  from  the  college  halls, 
and  were  not  only  to  be  found  in  the  white  school- 
houses  dotted  thick  over  Northern  Ohio,  but  they 


GENERAL   COX'S  ADDRESS.  287 

scattered  westward  and  eastward,  and  even  south- 
ward, and  a  beneficent  swarm,  always  appreciated 
as  successful  and  earnest  teachers,  sometimes  also 
hated  and  cursed  as  the  supposed  emissaries  of  a 
radical  propaganda,  but  whether  loved  or  hated, 
always  pushing,  debating,  inquiring  and  agitating. 
This  was  not  altogether  because  they  meant  to 
agitate,  or  fully  understood  the  sort  of  influence 
they  were  exerting.  It  was  better  than  that.  They 
were  young,  intelligent  men  and  women  who  were 
enthused  by  new  views  of  life  and  human  progress 
and  with  the  naivety  of  children  they  talked  about 
what  interested  them.  It  bubbled  from  their  lips 
as  naturally  as  their  breath,  and  they  could  not  re- 
frain from  it.  They  saw  with  prophetic  instinct 
**  the  good  time  coming,"  and  preached  it  most 
effectively  by  the  constant  exhibition  of  their  faith 
in  its  advent.  The  number  of  students  who  took 
degrees  in  the  ordinary  college  course  was  not 
large  compared  with  other  schools.  By  far  the 
greater  number  came  for  a  year  or  two,  to  supple- 
ment their  common-school  education  and  prepare 
for  common-school  teaching,  from  which  they  went 
back  to  the  farm  and  the  shop,  and  to  all  the  com- 
mon avocations  of  life.  The  school-mistresses 
became  the  wives  of  the  most  intelligent  and  active 
men  in  the  little  growing  communities  of  the  West, 
and  often  did  more  than  their  husbands  to  mould 
the  opinions  of  their  neighbors  through  the  subtle 
influence  of  earnest  conscientiousness  and  intelli- 
gence, exerted  quietly  but  persistently  from  day  to 
day,  and  from  year  to  year. 


288  OBERUN  JUBILEE. 

Our  "  Decoration  Day"  orators  often  dilate  with 
just  sentiment  upon  the  work  of  the  private  soldiers 
in  the  late  war,  and  show  how  vain  must  have  been 
leadership  of  whatever  ability  if  there  had  not  been 
the  supreme,  patient  hardihood,  and  courage  of  the 
men  in  the  ranks.  In  a  similar  way,  at  this  Oberlin 
Jubilee,  and  especially  when  dwelling,  as  I  am 
doing,  upon  the  relations  of  the  college  to  the 
great  public  question  of  our  generation,  we  should 
remember  the  Oberlin  students  whose  names  are 
not  in  your  triennial  catalogue,  who  did  not  fall 
out  by  the  way  for  lack  of  zeal  or  intelligence,  but 
whom  hard  necessity  forbade  to  do  more  than  tast«e 
the  "  Pierian  Spring."  Many  did  what  they  came 
to  do.  They  got  their  year  or  two  of  stud}^,  their 
new  views  of  the  nature  of  education  and  the  uses 
of  mental  discipline,  and  they  returned  more  or 
less  regretfully  to  their  appointed  work,  undecor- 
ated  with  degrees,  content  to  remain  in  the  ranks, 
yet  proud  to  be  reckoned  private  members  of  the 
Oberlin  legion.  For  them  the  ''  little  knowledge" 
did  not  prove  "a  dangerous  thing."  It  made  them 
better  citizens,  better  yeomen,  better  artisans,  and 
as  for  Alma  Mater,  they  never  forgot  her,  and  often 
rivalled  in  their  love  those  longest  cherished  in  her 
bosom.  I  think  w^e  may  fairly  say  that  Oberlin  is 
peculiar  among  all  the  learned  institutions  of  the 
land,  in  having  so  large  a  constituency  of  tempor- 
ary students,  inoculated  with  her  spirit,  though 
not  having  her  diploma  ;  the  bone  and  sinew  of  the 
country  wherever  they  are,  active  and  influential 
in   their   modest   spheres,   and    always    ready   to 


GENERAL    COX'S  ADDRESS.  28g 

second  the  efforts  and  sustain  the  work  of  her 
more  authoritative  representatives  whenever  they 
appear.  Like  the  private  soldiers  of  whom  I  have 
spoken,  they  never  forget  that  they  ''  have  served." 
Are  they  directors  of  a  country  school  district  ? 
They  want  an  Oberlin  man  to  teach  among  them. 
Is  a  new  college  starting  in  the  neighborhood  r 
They  look  to  Oberlin  for  its  professors.  There  is 
something  more  than  pride  or  prejudice  in  this. 
The  school  represents  to  their  minds  the  trench- 
ant, active  purpose  to  advance  all  true  reforms  and 
to  war  with  all  real  abuses.  Their  sympathy  with 
its  spirit  quickens  the  friendliness  which  is  the 
outgrowth  of  old  association,  and  makes  it  rather 
a  co-operation  in  a  common  purpose  than  a  form 
of  mere  sentiment.  Their  numbers  have  been  so 
great  that,  throughout  the  West  and  Northwest  it 
would  be  hard  to  find  a  community  v/hich  did  not 
acknowledge  their  influence!  The  great  tide  of 
immigration  from  all  the  eastern  and  middle  States 
runs  by  the  very  door  of  Oberlin,  and  her  students, 
among  the  most  active  and  enterprising  of  those 
that  committed  themselves  to  the  current,  have 
explored  every  byway  and  highway  of  all  the  new 
routes  that  advancing  civilization  opened.  Nay, 
they  were  often  the  foremost  among  the  pioneers 
who  preceded  all  civilization.  They  were  mission- 
aries among  the  Ojibways,  whilst  Iowa  and  Min- 
nesota were  yet  a  wilderness.  They  were  with 
John  Brown  at  Lawrence  and  Ossawattome  when 
the  outposts  of  freedom  were  first  established. 
Naturalists  love  to  trace  the  spread  of  the  flora 


290  O BERLIN  JUBILEE. 

and  fauna  of  a  country  to  all  the  leeward  regions 
which  the  steady  blowing  winds  or  the  great 
ocean  currents  can  reach.  Nothing  more  strongly 
impresses  the  imagination  than  to  see  a  delicate, 
feathery  sea- weed,  a  tiny  polyp,  a  microscopic 
speck  of  animal  jell}^  or  of  vegetable  life,  making 
voyages  of  countless  leagues  to  colonize  new  shores 
and  carry  teeming  life  to  coasts  and  reefs  rising 
from  the  depths  of  ocean.  But  here  in  North- 
ern Ohio  are  the  st*raits  in  a  great  moral  gulf 
stream.  Between  Lake  Erie  and  the  Ohio,  from 
Pittsburgh  to  Chicago  has  been  compressed  a 
human  tide  fed  b}^  the  overflow  not  only  of  the 
New  England  and  Middle  States,  but  by  that  of  all 
Europe  pressing  forward  in  a  peaceful  caravan, 
making  such  irruptions  that  Attila  and  the  Huns 
seem  insignificant  in  comparison.  Onward  it 
surged,  sending  off  a  lateral  stream  to  people  the 
peninsulain  ainoenam  of  Michigan.  With  sure  in- 
stinct it  gave  a  wide  berth  to  the  place  where 
slavery  had  fastened,  but  broadened  out  into  a 
great  fan  when  it  turned  the  southern  extremity  of 
Lake  Michigan,  sweeping  on  until  it  had  occupied 
the  whole  land  from  Manitoba  to  the  Arkansas 
River,  and  broke  over  the  ridges  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains  in  streams  that  reached  the  Pacific 
coast.  Like  its  physical  prototype,  in  the  Atlantic 
ocean,  which  after  shooting  through  the  Florida 
straits  with  the  rush  and  speed  of  a  mighty  river, 
widens  its  warm  current  till,  with  mollifying  in- 
fluence, it  makes  habitable  twenty  degrees  of 
latitude  in  western  Europe,  so  this  human  tide  has 


GENERAL    COX'S  ADDRESS.  29 1 

for  half  a  century  swept  by,  and  in  the  very  swiftest 
of  the  current  has  stood  this  school  of  learning 
propagating  the  seeds  of  peculiar  thought,  its  spe- 
cial idea  of  progress,  of  reform,  of  right — its  zeal 
making  a  tropical  rapidity  of  growth — and  sending 
them  broadcast  to  take  root  in  all  that  noble  re- 
gion beyond,  doing  more  (it  is  hardly  extravagant 
to  say  it)  than  any  other  single  human  influence  to 
give  permanent  character  and  purpose  to  the  great 
northwest. 

But  it  was  this  growth  of  the  western  region 
that  settled  the  great  constitutional  question  of 
national  freedom.  By  the  legislation  of  1819  Mis- 
souri had  been  placed  as  a  slave  state  across  the 
Ohio  to  dam  up  the  southwestern  flow  of  free  men 
and  free  institutions.  For  a  time  it  had  this  effect, 
and  like  a  Cuba  in  the  ocean  stream,  pushed  the 
current  northward ;  but  reaching  the  desert  and 
the  mountains  the  flood  poured  again  southward 
around  the  obstacles,  and  by  1856  the  slave  power 
had  learned  that  every  state  north  of  Texas  would 
have  a  free  constitution.  '*  Squatter  sovereignty" 
was  tried  as  a  forlorn  hope  of  gaining  by  organized 
immigration  what  the  free  northwest,  holding  now 
the  balance  of  power,  would  not  allow  to  be  de- 
voted to  slavery  by  anticipating  legislation.  Or- 
ganized immigration  was,  if  anything  was,  the 
stronghold  of  the  north,  and  Kansas  was  settled  as 
if  by  magic.  Defeated  by  the  march  of  true  hu- 
man progress,  but  failing  still  to  see  that  the  hand 
of  the  Omnipotent  was  against  them,  the  southern 
leaders  determined  to  destroy  the  national  govern- 


292  OBERLIN  JUBILEE, 

ment  under  which  slavery  was  doomed,  still  hoping 
that  this  same  western  region  would  rather  yield 
the  doctrine  of  constitutional  slavery  than  lose  its 
natural  outlet  by  the  Mississippi  to  the  gulf.  But 
the  answer  came  that  the  Northwest  would  neither 
yield  the  one  nor  lose  the  other,  and  casting  the 
strength  of  young  Hercules  into  the  balance,  se- 
cured the  accomplishment  of  God's  will  that 
America  should  be  free. 

What  can  be  clearer  than  that  in  this  chapter  of 
our  country's  history,  the  influence  of  Oberlin  as  a 
college  Was  a  factor  of  great  and  permanent  im- 
portance ?  It  would  be  rash  to  assign  to  any  one 
influence  a  decisive  and  pre-eminent  power,  for  all 
the  circumstances  of  the  time  and  the  march  of 
intellect  and  progress  in  the  whole  race  combined 
to  remove  from  the  earth  an  institution  that  be- 
longed to  the  dark  ages;  but  I  unhesitatingly 
assert  that  there  is  hardly  a  township  west  of  the 
AUeghanies  and  north  of  the  central  line  of  Ohio, 
in  which  the  influence  of  Oberlin  men  and  Oberlin 
opinions  cannot  be  specifically  identified  and 
traced.  It  was  the  propaganda  of  a  school  of 
thought  and  action  having  distinct  characteristics, 
and  as  easily  recognizable  in  its  work  as  was  that 
of  Garrison  and  the  American  anti-slavery  society 
in  their  methods  and  work. 

Whilst  I  regard  the  great  North\vest  as  the  pe- 
culiar field,  which  Oberlin  was  providentially  set 
to  cultivate,  I  do  not  mean  to  ignore  what  it  did  in 
other  directions.  For  Mr.  Finney,  and  the  older 
members  of  the  Faculty,  early  associations  and  the 


GENERAL   COX'S  ADDRESS.  203 

call  of  devoted  friends  made  the  East  more  often 
their  field  of  special  labor.  If  the  West  was  the 
theatre  for  the  exertion  of  its  greatest  direct  polit- 
ical influence,  the  college  had  to  conquer  in  the 
East  its  recognition  as  an  orthodox  school  ot 
Christian  theology,  and  a  sound  exponent  of  the 
right  relations  of  the  church  to  true  reform.  It 
had  also  to  establish  its  claim  to  be  a  school  of 
thorough  methods  in  intellectual  discipline,  and  ol 
good  standing  in  the  brotherhood  of  letters  and  ot 
science.  There  was  a  noticeable  willingness  on 
the  part  of  presbyteries  and  consociations  to  treat 
it,  for  a  good  many  years,  as  a  half  Moravian  com- 
munity of  enthusiasts,  whose  doctrines  were  ex- 
travagant, whose  morality  was  doubtful,  and  whose 
system  of  education  dealt  more  in  stimulants  to 
zeal  than  in  solid  food  for  the  brain.  It  is  by  no 
means  least  among  the  claims  to  honor  which 
rightly  belong  to  the  first  Faculty  of  the  college, 
that  in  the  best  and  truest  sense  they  made  "  dili- 
gence in  business"  accompany  their  "■  fervency  of 
spirit."  If  they  did  not,  according  to  the  ancient 
adage,  make  "good  works"  synonymous  with 
''  good  prayers,"  they  certainly  insisted  that  the 
two  should  go  together.  There  was  a  moment, 
near  the  beginning,  when  the  absorbing  desire  to 
make  all  education  directly  and  immediately  effi- 
cient for  the  religious  and  moral  work  in  hand, 
made  men  among  them  question  the  value  of  some 
branches  of  ''  profane"  learning ;  but  this  produced 
hardly  a  perceptible  deflection  in  the  orbit,  and  the 
common  judgment  of  the  scholars  of  all  ages  was 


294  OBERLIN  JUBILEE, 

made  the  permanent  criterion  as  to  the  elements  of 
a  hberal  education. 

My  personal  connection  with  the  institution 
began  in  1846,  when  most  of  the  chairs  in  the  Col- 
lege proper  were  filled  by  the  earlier  graduates,  and 
with  these  as  teachers  my  first  acquaintance  was 
naturally  made.  Looking  back  upon  them  with  the 
knowledge  of  men  I  have  since  gained,  I  do  not 
know  where  to  find  a  corps  of  professors  more 
earnest  in  their  work,  more  apt  to  stimulate  true 
scholarly  zeal  in  the  pupil,  more  thorough  in  their 
instruction,  more  intolerant  of  shams  and  surface 
knowledge.  Whipple,  Thome,  Hudson,  Monroe, 
and  Fairchild  (our  president),  were  all  here  then, 
and  I  claim  no  more  than  the  due  of  all  of  them 
when  I  say  that  if  the  comprehensive  learning,  the 
perfect  lucidity  of  mental  vision,  the  ever-reliable 
self-poise  and  calm  judgment  of  him  who  is  now 
the  honored  head  of  the  college  is  a  solid  ground 
for  confidence  in  its  direction  and  freedom  from 
mere  vagary  in  its  system  of  education,  we  were 
no  less  conscious  then  that  the  Faculty  as  a  whole 
understood  its  task,  and  could  guarantee  to  every 
diligent  student  an  equipment  for  his  after- work 
of  which  he  need  not  be  ashamed  in  the  presence 
of  the  graduates  of  the  older  colleges  of  the  land. 
And  when  we  turn  to  the  seniors  in  the  Faculty 
who  could  stimulate  to  original  thought  and  fruit- 
ful labor  in  mental  and  moral  philosophy  if  not 
Finney  and  Mahan?  Where  was  broader  grasp 
and  sounder  learning  in  exegesis  than  Morgan's? 
Where  more   accurate   or   acuter   criticism   than 


GENERAL   COX'S  ADDRESS.  29-j 

Cowles'  ?  Where  clearer  exposition  in  science  and 
neater  finish  in  experiment  and  demonstration  than 
Dascomb's?  The  older  men  were  in  their  strong- 
est prime,  the  younger  in  the  first  full  energy  and 
vigor  of  manhood.  All  meant  that  the  college 
should  not  be  lacking  in  the  performance  of  its 
duty  in  the  reforms  of  the  day  ;  but  they  also 
meant  to  build  the  hopes  of  permanent  usefulness 
upon  doing  its  distinctive  college  work  quite  as 
well  as  any  other. 

I  think  it  necessary  to  refer  to  this  because  I  am 
deeply  convinced  that  the  continued  and  growing 
influence  of  the  college  in  the  public  affairs  of 
which  I  am  speaking  could  not  have  been  secured 
except  by  convincing  educated  men  at  the  East,  in 
and  out  of  the  church,  that  it  was  no  mushroom  in 
education,  and  no  crazy  schismatic  in  theology, 
but  was  building  in  both  departments  upon  sohd 
learning,  upon  sound  interpretation,  and  upon  logi- 
cally consistent  philosophy. 

And  what  shall  1  say  of  the  influence  of  the  col- 
lege in  the  South  ?  It  was  certainly  known  there, 
so  well  known  that  for  a  time  there  was  no  little 
personal  risk  to  the  travelling  student  who  made 
known  his  connection  with  the  school.  Yet  num- 
bers of  the  undergraduates  were  impelled  by  a 
laudable  curiosity,  or  b}^  the  hope  of  better  salaries 
than  usual,  to  explore  the  country  where  slavery 
was  at  home,  and  to  see  with  their  own  eyes  the 
working  of  the  system  they  were  enlisted  to  over- 
throw. The  scarcity  of  teachers  made  a  certain 
demand  for  their  services,  and  in  many  places  they 


29^  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

could  get  employment  on  condition  that  they 
should  commit  no  overt  acts  of  hostility  to  the 
*'  institution"  while  in  its  midst.  Occasionally  they 
were  driven  out,  hut  personal  violence,  like  the 
lynching  of  Amos  Dresser  and  the  imprisonment 
of  George  Thompson,  was  not  common,  for  the 
wiser  men  of  the  South  had  a  shrewd  suspicion 
that  the  blood  of  the  mart3^rs  would  prove  the  seed 
of  the  church,  and  as  in  the  later  Ku-Klux  times, 
deprecated  acts  of  outrage  which  damaged  their 
cause  in  the  eyes  of  the  world.  The  spice  of 
danger  seems  to  have  had  its  charm ;  for  I  know 
that  in  my  own  college  days,  teaching  in  the  South 
was  reckoned  among  the  feasible  ways  of  turning 
the  winter  vacation  to  account,  and  one  of  the 
brightest  men  of  my  own  class  was  permanently 
lost  to  our  view^  after  engaging  to  teach  in  North- 
ern Mississippi. 

It  is  safe  to  say,  therefore,  that  Oberlin  was 
widely  known  at  the  South  by  other  means  than 
the  notoriety  of  being  a  principal  station  on  the 
**  underground  railroad,"  and  that  there,  as  else- 
where, a  steadfast  testunony  to  the  truth  could  not 
be  continued  without  bearing  fruit.  The  angry 
exasperation  which  was  shown  was  often  evidence 
of  uneasy  consciences,  though  we  can  never  know 
exactly  how  far  the  education  of  the  people  had 
progressed.  Many  things  tend  to  show  that  there 
was  a  good  deal  of  serious  thinking.  In  the  last 
year  of  the  war  a  Southern  woman  of  great  intel- 
ligence and  character,  of  a  family  which  had  given 
leading  public  men  to  the  country,  said  to  me,  "  I 


GENERAL   COX'S  ADDRESS.  297 

am  convinced  that  what  the  South  is  now  suffering 
is  the  curse  of  God  for  the  sin  of  slavery."  The 
confession  was  not  born  of  the  lessons  of  the  war 
alone,  but  revealed  vistas  of  older  struggles  with 
the  terrible  problem. 

When  the  war  itself  came  it  was  a  matter  of 
course  that  Oberlin  should  be  worthily  repre- 
sented in  the  culminating  phase  of  the  contest  she 
had  so  long  had  a  part  in.  The  noble  company  of 
young  men  who  went  from  the  classes  to  the  field, 
of  whom  so  many  names  are  cut  upon  the  tablets 
of  the  monument  which  stands  upon  the  ground 
where  Cincinnati  Hall  was  built  by  those  who  here 
first  enlisted  for  good  and  all,  for  life  and  death, 
in  the  war  with  a  giant  wrong,  were  living  wit- 
nesses, and  being  dead,  speak  plainly  the  truth 
that  Oberlin  did  not  shrink  from  the  most  fearful 
cost  when  it  was  necessary  to  maintain  principle 
and  right.  But  I  will  not  dwell  upon  this  as  any 
peculiar  part  of  Oberlin's  connection  with  great 
events,  for  by  this  time  the  education  of  the 
country  had  so  far  progressed  that  the  same  spirit 
was  all  but  universal.  Oberlin  was  no  longer  sin- 
gular, and  this  was  the  best  evidence  how  well  her 
work  had  been  done.  East  and  West  our  colleges 
have  nearly  all  their  list  of  students  who  graduated 
in  the  field,  and  took  another  and  nobler  degree 
than  that  for  which  they  had  entered. 

The  country  had  come  up  to  the  standard  of 
right  which  thirty  years  before  had  been  met  with 
denunciation  and  scorn  as  wildest  radicalism,  and 
in  the  closing  controversies  of  the  great  debate 


298  OB E RUN  JUBILEE. 

Oberlin  was  even  thought  by  many  to  be  strangely 
conservative.  But  hers  was  not  the  enthusiasm  of 
a  new  proselyte.  It  was  the  settled  judgment  of 
an  old  leader  who  had  explored  the  question  from 
the  beginning,  and  could  afford  in  the  hour  of  vic- 
tory to  counsel  moderation  and  magnanimity. 

An  important  lesson  to  be  learned  from  the 
history  of  which  I  have  made  so  imperfect  a  sketch, 
is  that  side  by  side  with  the  public  and  official 
organization  of  a  great  movement  is  a  quieter  but 
no  less  needful  work  of  advocacy  of  truth  and  in- 
struction in  its  principles.  I  have  had  nothing  to 
say  of  Congressional  debates  and  framing  of  party 
platforms,  of  Wilmot  provisos  and  Dred  Scott  de- 
cisions. Yet  I  am  sincerely  convinced  that  these, 
great  as  is  the  figure  which  they  properly  make  in 
the  political  history  of  the  time,  are  secondary  to 
the  importance  of  that  self-sacrificing  preaching  of 
unpopular  truth  which  precedes  all  public  and 
party  action.  This  is  the  ''  first  step  that  costs" — 
costs  popularity  and  honor,  wealth  and  the  good 
opinion  of  mankind,  to  him  who  takes  it — which, 
if  he  perish  in  taking  it,  makes  him  *'  a  blessed 
martyr"  in  the  after  opinion  of  a  better  informed 
age  and  country. 

It  is  not  in  every  lifetime  that  such  convulsions 
come  as  those  which  we  here  reijiember  and  recall. 
Looking  forward  fifty  years  it  seems  to  us  now 
that  the  second  half-century  of  the  college  life  will 
be  tame  indeed  compared  with  the  tremendous 
events  of  the  first.  Yet  I  think  we  shall  all  agree 
that  whether  in  troubled  or  in   quiet  times,  the 


GENERAL   COX'S  ADDRESS.  299 

work  of  an  institution  of  learning  worthy  the  name 
can  never  be  insignificant,  and  that  the  surest  way, 
the  only  way,  to  do  its  duty  to  its  generation,  is  to 
spare  no  effort  to  base  its  instruction  upon  an  un- 
compromising devotion  to  truth  ;  truth  in  religion, 
in  science,  in  philosophy,  and  in  the  principles 
which  must  underlie  all  politics  and  public  action. 
If  this  produces  no  controversy,  and  all  goes  on  in 
halcyon  days  of  peace  and  sunshine,  well ;  but  if 
some  powerfully  supported  error  finds  profit  in 
opposing  the  truth,  the  spirit  which  animated  the 
Oberlin  men  of  1835  will  make  those  who  have  it 
the  necessary  champions  of  the  right,  and  on  a 
greater  or  smaller  field  w^ill  repeat  the  history 
of  this  half  century,  closing  with  the  same  moral 
at  last,  that  the  noblest  use  for  college  or  for 
man  is  to  be  a  sturdy  and  intelligent  advocate  of 
truth  and  the  apostle  of  genuine  progress  for  our 
race. 

We  must  not  forget,  however,  that  the  founders 
of  this  school  cherished  no  ambition  to  make  it 
distinctively  great  or  reputable.  They  meant  only 
to  do  well  the  work  which  came  to  hand,  and  that 
seemed  to  be  to  court  poverty  and  ill-repute 
rather  than  fame  and  wealth.  Their  uncalculating 
simplicity  of  purpose  and  their  renunciation  of  all 
the  ordinary  forms  of  success  were  the  essential 
conditions  of  the  triumph  they  finally  witnessed, 
for  thus  only  could  they  be  the  fit  instruments  of 
the  Divine  will.  They  could  not  have  planned  it 
so  if  they  had  tried  ;  but  they  did  not  try,  they 
only  brought  to  their  task  conscience  and  honest. 


300  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

fearless,  intelligent  work,  knowing  with  completest 
assurance  the  truth  so  well  elaborated  in  the  bac- 
calaureate last  Sunday,  that  ''  except  the  Lord 
build  the  house,  they  labor  in  vain  that  build  it." 


THE  COLONY  AND  THE  COLLEGE. 

BY   REV.    WM.    H.    RYDER,    '66. 

There  is  no  characteristic  of  Oberlin  life  and 
Oberlin  teaching  which  has  been  more  faithfully 
cultivated  and  more  steadfastly  inculcated  than 
the  spirit  of  entire  frankness  and  truthfulness. 
Since  Mr.  Shipherd  and  Mr.  Stewart  began  to 
confer  with  one  another  upon  this  great  enterprise 
to  which  they  had  laid  their  hands  until  this  fiftieth 
anniversary,  every  resident  and  every  student  and 
every  professor  has  encouraged  all  who  have 
come  under  his  influence  to  tell  the  truth,  the 
whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth.  No  supe- 
riority in  age  or  attainment,  in  learning  or  in 
character,  has  freed  the  wisest  and  the  oldest  from 
the  plain  and  simple  criticism  of  the  youngest  and 
the  simplest. 

Carrying  out  this  spirit,  following  the  instruc- 
tion which  1  received  in  the  school,  I  am  com- 
pelled to  begin  by  revealing  a  fault  in  one  of  my 
most  esteemed  instructors,  I  have  no  doubt  that 
Professor  Ellis,  like  all  the  great  men  who  have 
been  connected  with  this  school,  believes  in  "  The 
Simplicity  of  Moral  Action,"  and  teaches  the  doc- 
trine ;  and  yet  I  have  found  in  some  of  his  acts 
dunng  these  last  few  weeks  some  measure  of  com- 
plexity, which  I  must  explain  to  you.     In  a  comma- 


302  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

nication  received  from  him  some  weeks  since,  I 
was  asked  if  I  would  speak  upon  the  subject  which 
now  stands  opposite  my  name  ;  and  this  letter  inti- 
mated that  the  whole  broad  field  would  be  open 
to  me.  I  have  since  learned,  however,  that  under 
Professor  Ellis'  potent  influence,  President  Fair- 
child  was  at  that  very  time  writing  a  book  of 
nearly  four  hundred  pages  upon  my  subject.  You 
have  all  read  that  book.  I  come  here  to  find  my 
thunder  stolen,  my  occupation  gone  !  "  For  what 
can  the  man  do  that  cometh  after  the  king?  Even 
that  which  hath  been  already  done." 

I  have  thought  that  I  might  in  part  escape  this 
embarrassment  by  a  free  interpretation  of  my  sub- 
ject, confining  my  thought  to  the  colony  and 
village  as  distinct  from  the  College.  But  I  have 
met  in  that  effort  with  even  a  more  serious  embar- 
rassment ;  for  there  never  was  a  colony,  there 
never  has  been  a  village,  here  distinct  from  the 
College.  If  a  man  were  called  to  speak  upon  the 
town  of  Cambridge  and  of  its  relations  with  Har- 
vard College,  upon  the  town  of  New  Haven  and 
the  connection  which  it  holds  with  Yale  College, 
upon  the  city  of  Ann  Arbor  and  the  connection 
between  that  and  Michigan  University,  he  would 
have  a  theme  at  once.  In  such  case  the  town  has 
a  life  distinct  from  that  of  the  school  and  preced- 
ing it.  If  there  has  been  no  conflict  between  town 
and  gown,  there  has  been  a  plain  line  of  demarka- 
tion,  so  that  one  could  say,  "  There  is  the  town, 
and  there  is  the  college."  But  this  has  never  been 
true   here.     When,   on   the    19th   of  April,    1833, 


THE   COLONY  AND    THE   COLLEGE.  303 

Deacon  Pease  unyoked  his  oxen  under  yonder  elm 
the  college  .had  come.  Nothing  else  ever  has 
come  in  all  these  years.  No  man  ever  came  here 
except  because  the  college  was  here.  What  else 
has  attracted  men?  Have  they  come  to  build 
docks  on  the  banks  of  Plum  Creek?  Have  they 
come  to  invest  capital  in  the  development  and  use 
of  the  water-power  of  this  classic  stream  ?  Has 
commerce  attempted  to  make  this  a  place  for  dis- 
tributing supplies  over  the  country  ?  Have  men 
come  here  to  retire  from  business  and  breathe  this 
cool,  salubrious  air,  and  gaze  upon  the  magnificent 
scenery?  No.  Every  man  has  come  because  the 
college  was  here,  and  has  come  to  take  part  in  the 
college  work.  Why,  even  those  who  have  come 
to  plant  what  you  call  here  "  drug  stores"  have 
come  for  that  very  reason;  and  it  is  possible  that 
it  is  the  classic  influence  of  the  college  which  has 
given  them  here  this  euphonious  name. 

We  have  often  marked  parallels  between  the 
founders  of  Oberlin  and  the  Pilgrim  Fathers. 
They  were  men  of  the  same  devotion,  men  of  the 
same  underlying  principles,  the  same  simplicity 
and  humility  and  courage  and  devoted  self-de- 
nial. In  minuter  matters  we  might  find  paral- 
lels. Each  of  them  had  its  covenant,  and  each 
found  it  necessary  soon  to  put  that  covenant  in 
the  background.  The  Pilgrim  Fathers  came 
through  sea  and  flood ;  the  fathers  of  Oberlin 
came  through  water  and  mire. 

We  might  ask,  with  the  poet,  of  these  Oberlin 
fathers:  "What   sought  they  thus  afar?     Bright 


304  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

jewels  of  the  mine  ?  The  wealth  of  seas,  the  spoil 
of  war?" 

But  we  could  not  answer  as  the  poet  answers 
concerning  the  Pilgrim  Fathers.  They  did  not 
come  here  to  find  "a  faith's  pure  shrine."  They 
had  that  already.  Mr.  Shipherd  was  the  beloved 
pastor  of  a  useful  church,  and  left  it  with  the 
regret  of  his  people.  He  had  the  same  freedom 
in  Elyria  which  he  had  in  these  forests.  Deacon 
Pease  could  worship  with  as  much  freedom  in 
Brownhelm  as  he  could  under  yonder  classic  elm. 
They  came  simply  to  found  a  college,  and  as  a 
community  to  minister  to  its  interests. 

The  college  was  Oberlin,  and  Oberlin  was  the 
college.  Deacon  Pease  and  Deacon  Turner,  with 
handsaw  and  jackplane,  were  as  important  to  the 
college  as  Dr.  Dascomb  with  his  retort  and  blow- 
pipe. Deacon  Hamilton  and  Deacon  Crosby  and 
Deacon  Wheat,  with  axe  and  plow,  were  as  essen- 
tial to  the  school  as  Professor  Waldo  and  Pro- 
fessor Hudson,  delving  among  Greek  roots  and 
teaching  the  young  ideas  how  to  shoot.  A  log 
chain  was  as  important  to  the  college  as  the  chain 
of  logic ;  and  the  "  sincere  milk  and  strong  meat 
of  the  word"  would  never  have  done  good  if  there 
had  not  been  other  meat  and  other  milk  furnished 
those  who  gathered  here.  Deacon  Burrill,  with 
his  meat  wagon  traversing  these  streets,  and  the 
men  who  pastured  and  milked  the  cows  upon  this 
campus,  were  serving  the  college  just  as  faithfully 
as  those  who  preached  in  the  churches  and  taught 
in  the  class-rooms.     Mr.  Stewart's  and  Brewster 


THE   COLONY  AND   THE    COLLEGE.  305 

Petlon's  boarding-houses  filled  their  place  in  col- 
lege work.  These  good  men,  the  colonists,  were 
part  and  parcel  of  the  school.  Their  hearts  and 
hands  were  in  it.  Their  names  do  not  all  appear 
in  our  Triennial  Catalogue,  but  their  life  flowed  in 
here.  They  made  the  school  what  ht  is.  It  could 
not  have  been  without  them.  It  could  never  have 
been  what  it  is  to-day  if  they  had  not  been  what 
they  Avere — devout,  heroic,  self-denying,  consci- 
entious men  and  women.  They  were  not  all 
learned  men.  None  of  them,  perhaps,  were  geni- 
uses as  the  world  reckons  genius.  But  they  were 
faithful  to  their  calling,  able  to  appreciate  sound 
learning  and  conserve  it. 

These  pioneers  have  been  followed  in  regular 
apostolic  succession — there  has  never  been  a  break 
in  that  succession — by  men  and  women  of  the 
same  spirit  and  the  same  purpose.  The  glorious 
company  of  farmers  and  mechanics  and  tradesmen  ; 
the  blessed  succession  of  boarding-house  keepers, 
men  and  women.  Their  boarders  rise  up  and  call 
them  blessed  !  I  do  not  say  that  their  steaks  were 
always  tender  and  juicy.  They  fed  "men  of  full 
age,"  and  gave  them  sometimes  the  ''  strong  meat." 
Their  tea  may  sometimes  have  been  too  white 
and  their  milk  too  blue.  They  may  not  have  dis- 
covered how  to  set  a  table  as  we  expect  to  find  it 
at  a  summer  watering-place,  at  fifty  cents  a  week. 
But  they  made  Oberlin  College  a  possibility. 
They  made  Oberlin  College  the  great  success 
which  it  has  been.  I  think  Mr.  Stewart  succeeded 
in  his  effort  to  discover  the  least  that  a  man  can 


306  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

eat  and  continue  to  live  and  work  and  study.  But 
he  did  not  discover  the  way  by  which  men  can 
study  without  eating  anything.  He  had  no  ambi- 
tion in  that  direction.  There  never  was  a  spark 
of  that  asceticism  which  despises  the  body.  They 
said  in  their  covenant  that  they  would  eat  plain 
food,  but  it  was  to  be  wholesome  food.  They 
were  to  dress  simply,  but  they  were  to  dress  com- 
fortably. They  were  to  live  in  plain  houses,  but 
not  in  dirty  houses.  Their  self-control — you  may 
call  it  asceticism  if  you  please — was  not  from  con- 
tempt of  the  body ;  it  was  from  respect  for  it  as 
the  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  If  any  erred  in  the 
extreme  of  sacrificing  bodily  wants,  it  was  from  a 
mistake  in  the  use  of  means ;  it  was  not  from  a  false 
idea  of  the  unworthiness  of  the  flesh,  or  its  dis- 
harmony with  spiritual  demands.  ''  The  sound 
mind  in  the  sound  body"  was  their  motto.  It  is 
remarkable  that  in  those  days,  when  belief  in  the 
duty  of  fasting  was  universal,  there  was  no  extreme 
in  this  respect. 

The  daughter  of  Deacon  Pease  informs  me  that 
upon  the  door  of  the  first  cabin  that  was  built  in 
the  shade  of  that  historic  elm,  these  words  were 
written  :  ''  Present  your  bodies  a  living  sacrifice." 
Not  a  dead,  but  a  living  sacrifice — that  was  the 
principle. 

Mr.  Finney  used  to  rebuke  his  congregation 
sometimes  for  eating  too  much  dinner.  I  have 
heard  him  on  a  hot  summer  afternoon,  his  eagle 
eye  dimmed  with  tears  and  his  trumpet  voice 
choked    with   sobs,    exhort    in    this    way:    'K)h, 


THE   COLONY  AND    THE   COLLEGE.  30/ 

brethren,  how  can  I  preach  the  gospel  to  you,  how 
can  the  Holy  Spirit  work  in  your  liearts  when 
you  come  here  at  half-past  2  o'clock,  and  nod  over 
your  pudding  and  milk?"  It  is  easy  to  see  how 
that  eye  would  have  flashed  in  stern  indignation, 
and  that  voice  thundered  in  reproof,  if,  from  as- 
cetic notions,  the  people  had  gathered  there  with- 
out eating  any  dinner. 

With  this  necessity  recognized  and  accepted,  we 
must  acknowledge  the  w^ork  of  the  colonists  and 
villagers  as  only  a  part  of  the  work  of  the  college. 
They  all  belonged  to  the  school.  They  were  all 
pupils  in  the  school.  The  class  rooms,  we  are 
told,  were  crowded  with  residents  in  those  early 
days.  The  interest  in  philosophy  and  theology 
pervaded  the  whole  colony.  The  colonists  were 
members  of  the  literary  societies.  They  were  all 
taught  in  the  churches,  not  only  because  the  pro- 
fessors preached,  but  because  they  preached  phi- 
losophy and  theology.  There  were  no  weak 
exhortations  without  foundation  in  these  churches. 
Mature  men  grew  wise  under  that  kind  of  teach- 
ing. President  Mahan,  Professor  Finney,  and 
Professor  Morgan  did  not  discourse  to  a  company 
of  callow  youths  and  thoughtless  boys  and  girls. 
They  spoke  to  men  and  women  of  New  England 
training,  of  sinewy  mind,  wrestling  with  what  was 
then  the  new  theology.     They 

"  Reasoned  high 
Of  providence,  foreknowledge,  will  and  fate — 
Fixed  fate,  free  will,  foreknowledge  absolute.' 

They   were   all   teachers,   too — Deacon    Pease, 


308  OBERLIN  JUBILEE, 

Deacon  Burrill,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  deacons, 
(They  were  all  deacons,  I  believe.)  They  were  not, 
to  be  sure,  enrolled  as  professors,  but,  after  all, 
they  were  teachers  in  the  school. 

God  has  cast  my  lot  in  these  later  days  in  the 
shadow  of  another  great  school  in  this  boundless 
West — a  school  of  marvelous  growth  and  almost 
unlimited  influence.  Some  of  us  who  are  interested 
in  that  school,  recognizing  this  power,  feel  that 
there  ought  to  be  a  new  professorship  endowed 
by  Christian  churches  in  that  university.  Its  in- 
cumbent might  be  called,  for  short,  the  Professor 
of  Religion  in  Michigan  University.  That  is,  his 
province  should  be  to  lecture  upon  the  fundamen- 
tal truths  of  rehgion — to  give  instructions  in  the 
languages,  literature,  history  and  principles  of 
criticism  of  the  Christian  Scriptures ;  a  man  of 
superior  power,  the  acknowledged  peer  of  any  other 
man  in  the  university.  Ideas  grow  fast  in  the 
fertile  soil  of  Michigan,  and  we  may  have  such  a 
man  there  soon. 

President  Fairchild  says  in  his  book  upon  my 
subject,  that  sinners  began  to  come  here  very 
early.  But  the  colonists  without  exception,  and 
the  great  mass  of  those  who  have  followed  them 
even  to  this  day,  have  been  professors  of  rehgion. 
By  that  I  do  not  mean  that  they  professed  to  be 
religious  simply,  but  that  they  taught  religion — 
that  they  came  here  for  that  purpose.  They  have 
not  drawn  any  salary  ;  they  have  never  asked  that 
their  names  might  be  enrolled  in  the  catalogues, 
but  they  have  been  prosecuting  that  work  here. 


THE   COLONY  AND    THE   COLLEGE.  309 

That  heresy,  as  false  to  sound  learning  as  it  is 
to  true  religion,  that  education  consists  simply  in 
the  mastery  of  a  certain  modicum  of  knowledge, 
and  of  a  certain  dexterity  of  thinking  and  speak- 
ing, had  never  cast  its  shadow  over  the  minds  of 
these  colonists.  They  believed  that  education  per- 
tained to  the  whole  man,  and  that  it  pertained 
especially  to  the  heart  and  soul  and  character — 
that  an  educated  man  was  a  complete  man.  They 
never  believed  in  building  an  arch  and  leaving  out 
the  keystone.  With  that  conception  of  religion, 
each  man  felt  it  his  duty  to  illustrate  religion,  to 
teach  its  principles.  They  did  not  organize  an 
army  in  which  all  were  to  be  captains,  quite,  but 
they  did  organize  a  school,  a  town — a  village 
school — a  college  town,  in  which  all  were  to  be 
students  and  all  professors. 

That  is  the  ideal  of  Oberlin.  That  is  the  mission 
of  Oberlin.  If  Oberlin  is  true  to  that  conception 
of  the  founders,  to  that  vision  seen  in  the  mount, 
then  Oberlin  has  a  future  as  well  as  a  past.  Not 
a  more  glorious  future,  perhaps ;  that  may  not 
be  possible.  The  glory  of  the  Apostles  will 
never  be  outshone  in  the  history  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church.  There  never  will  be  more  illus- 
trious citizens  of  this  land  than  those  who  laid 
its  foundations  on  Plymouth  Rock ;  there  never 
will  be  more  glorious  men  in  Oberlin  than  John 
Shipherd,  Philo  Stewart,  Peter  Pease,  Asa  Ma- 
han,  Charles  Finney,  and  John  Morgan.  But  if 
Oberlin  will  be  true  to  its  past  it  shall  have 
a  future  worthy  of  the  past.     Its  borders  will  be 


3IO  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

enlarged,  its  streets  and  its  homes  will  grow  more 
beautiful,  its  public  buildings  more  numerous  and 
spacious  and  elegant,  its  faculties  will  be  larger, 
their  learning  broader,  and  more  profound,  and 
increasing  troops  of  young  men  and  maidens  will 
gather  here  to  sit  under  the  instructions,  and 
imbibe  the  spirit  of  the  place.  The  light  of  truth 
shall  shine  from  this  place,  and  the  joy  of  salvation 
shall  flow  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  Not  only  will 
the  wise  men  of  the  earth  look  here  for  increase  of 
wisdom,  but  better  still  the  poor,  the  ignorant, 
the  tempted  of  our  whole  land,  and  of  every  land, 
will  continue  to  turn  their  eyes  here  for  light  and 
hope  and  salvation. 

And  now,  my  good  friends,  my  former  neigh- 
bors and  townsmen — for  I  speak  to  you  and  in 
your  behalf  to-day — I  think  that  I  have  proved 
my  proposition,  not  only  that  my  subject  was 
taken  from  me,  but  that  no  subject  was  ever  given 
me ;  that  a  theme  which  seems  to  imply  that  there 
was  ever  a  colony  or  a  town  here  as  distinct  from 
a  college — that  there  were  ever  colonists  or  citi- 
zens who  were  neither  students  nor  teachers  in 
the  college — is  an  empty  and  unmeaning  phrase. 
This  has  been  true  for  fifty  years.  It  depends  on 
you  to  say  whether  it  shall  be  true  in  the  future, 
or  whether  there  shall  be  two  Oberlins  of  diverging 
or  conflicting  interests.  Recognize  your  duty  and 
magnify  your  office,  and  the  God  of  the  fathers 
will  be  your  God,  and  the  glorious  past  will  prove 
to  be  but  the  early  dawning  of  a  brighter  and  more 
blessed  future. 


OBERLIN   AND   WOMAN. 

BY  MRS.  LUCY  STONE,  '47, 
Boston,  Mass. 

Oberlin  is  proud  of  her  founders,  of  their 
poverty,  of  their  faith,  of  their  perseverance. 
Their  story  will  be  told  as  long  as  one  stone  of  all 
they  builded  remains  upon  another.  Oberlin  is 
proud  of  her  theology,  of  her  free  thought,  of  her 
classical  acquirements,  of  her  anti-slavery  record, 
of  her  temperance  record,  of  her  plain  living  and 
high  thinking  ;  but  her  highest  glory  in  history, 
the  crowning  achievement  of  her  founders,  will 
be  that  OberUn  was  the  pioneer  in  establishing 
the  co-education  of  men  and  women.  The  time 
was  opportune.  William  Lloyd  Garrison  and 
the  brave  band  of  Abolitionists  he  led  had  startled 
and  aroused  the  nation  by  their  demand  for  the 
freedom  of  the  slaves.  The  idea  of  equal  rights 
was  in  the  air.  The  wail  of  the  slave,  his  clanking 
fetters,  his  utter  need,  appealed  to  everybody  for 
help.  Women  heard  it.  In  obedience  to  His  com- 
mand who  said,  "  Remember  those  in  bonds  as 
bound  with  them,"  Sarah  and  Angelina  Grimke 
and  Abby  Kelly,  three  Quaker  women,  went  out 
to  speak  for  the  slave.  Such  a  thing  had  never 
been  heard  of.  An  earthquake  shock  could  hardly 
have  startled  the  community  more.  Some  of  the 
Abolitionists  forgot  the  slave  in  their  efforts  to 
silence  the  women.  The  Anti-Slavery  Society  rent 


312  0 BERLIN  J  UBILEE. 

itself  in  twain  over  the  subject.  The  church  was 
moved  to  its  very  foundation  in  opposition.  The 
"pastoral  letter  "of  the  Congregational  ministers 
"  of  Massachuetts  warned  the  world  of  the  wide- 
spread and  permanent  injury  that  threatened  the 
female  character."  The  press,  many-tongued,  sur- 
passed itself  in  reproaches  upon  these  women  who 
had  so  far  departed  from  their  sphere  as  to  speak 
in  public.  But  with  anointed  lips  and  a  consecra- 
tion which  put  even  life  itself  at  stake,  these  peer- 
less women  pursued  the  even  tenor  of  their  way, 
saying  only  to  their  opponents,  "  Woe  is  me  if  I 
preach  not  this  gospel  of  freedom  to  the  slave." 
Over  all  came  the  soothing  melody  of  Whittier, — 

"Where  woman's  heart  is  bleeding 
Shall  woman's  voice  be  hushed  ?" 

About  this  time,  too,  an  increasing  interest  in 
foreign  missions  began  to  be  felt.  There  was  an 
earnest  call  for  missionaries,  for  educated  young 
men  to  send  to  far-distant  fields.  Societies  to 
educate  poor  but  earnest  young  men  sprang  up 
all  over  the  North.  Little  sewing-circles  were 
formed,  where  rich  and  poor  women  met  to  sew, 
either  for  a  fair  to  raise  money  or  for  garments  to 
be  given  directly  to  the  3^oung  men  whom  the 
education  societies  aided.  '■'  Help  educate  young 
men  !  Help  educate  young  men  for  ministers  and 
for  missionaries !"  was  the  constant  appeal  made 
to  women.  Was  it  a  wonder  that  as  young  wo- 
men drew  the  needle  they  also  drew  the  conclu- 
sion that  if  education  was  so   necessary  for  men 


O BERLIN  AND    WOMAN.  313 

who  were  to  go  to  the  heathen,  it  must  be  valuable 
for  women  who  were  to  stay  at  home  ? 

About  this  time,  too,  Miss  Mary  Lyon  began  a 
movement  to  establish  Mount  Holyoke  Female 
Seminary.  The  men  who  were  to  go  as  mission- 
aries must  have  educated  wives.  It  was  tacitly 
understood  and  openly  expressed  that  Mount 
Holyoke  Seminary  was  to  meet  this  demand.  But 
whatever  the  reason,  the  idea  was  born  that  wo- 
men could  and  should  be  educated.  It  lifted  a 
mountain-load  from  women.  It  shattered  the  idea 
that  they  were  incapable  of  education,  and  would 
be  less  womanly,  less  everything  desirable,  if  the}^ 
had  it. 

About  the  same  time,  far  away  at  the  West,  the 
little  hamlet  of  Oberlin  appeared.  Its  light 
gleamed  up  in  the  horizon,  and  over  all  the  dis- 
tance, clear  as  a  bell,  sounded  the  proclamation  of 
Father  Shipherd  ;  and  this  was  it: 

"  The  grand  objects  of  the  Oberlin  Institute 
are:  to  give  the  most  useful  education  at  the  least 
expense  of  health,  time  and  money,  to  extend  the 
benefit  of  such  education  to  both  sexes  and  to  all 
classes  of  the  community  as  far  as  its  means  Avill 
allow.  .  .  .  The  prominent  objects  of  this 
seminary  are  the  thorough  qualification  of  Chris- 
tian teachers,  both  for  the  pulpit  and  the  schools, 
and  the  elevation  of  female  character  by  bringing 
within  the  reach  of  the  misjudged  and  neglected 
sex  all  the  instrnctive  privileges  which  have  hitherto 
unreasonably  distinguished  the  leading  sex  from 
theirs^ 


3  14  0 BERLIN  JUBILEE. 

These  were  the  words  of  Father  Shipherd, 
which,  if  not  heard  in  form,  were  heard  in  fact  as 
wide  as  the  world. 

*'  Get  but  the  truth  once  uttered,  and  'tis  like 
A  star  new-born  that  drops  into  its  place, 
And  which,  once  circling  in  its  placid  round, 
Not  all  the  tumult  of  the  earth  can  shake." 

Like  a  new-born  star  were  these  brave  words  of 
Father  Shipherd's.  They  are  to  shine  on,  all  down 
the  ages.  How  like  a  benediction  they  came  to  wo- 
men, who  had  found  the  doors  of  knowledge  closed 
against  them  !  As  hungry  herds  look  from  their 
parched  and  barren  fields  to  green  pastures  and 
living  streams,  so  began  women  to  look  to  Ober- 
lin.  Those  who  had  sewed  and  spent  time, 
strength,  and  money  to  help  educate  young  men, 
dropped  the  needle  and  that  toil,  and  said,  ''  Let 
these  men  with  broader  shoulders  and  stronger 
arms  earn  their  own  education,  while  we  use  our 
scantier  opportunities  to  educate  ourselves."  Poor 
women  and  the  daughters  of  well-to-do  men  had 
to  earn  their  own  way  to  and  through  college. 
Even  their  own  fathers  did  not  know  it  was  wise 
and  safe  to  educate  women.  Good  fathers,  with 
pathetic  earnestness,  still  clinging  to  the  old  way, 
said  to  their  daughters,  "  Your  mother  can  read 
and  write  and  reckon  all  the  accounts  she  will 
ever  be  called  to  settle.  This  was  good  enough 
for  her,  and  it  is  enough  for  you."  They  quoted, 
— *'  If  a  woman  would  know  anything,  let  her  ask 
her  husband  at  home."     But  they  did  not  provide 


0  BE  RUN  AND    WOMAN.  3I5 

for  the  situation  when  she  had  no  husband,  or  if 
she  had  one  when  he  could  not  tell  her. 

The  women  of  fifty  years  ago  had  no  choice. 
There  were  no  educational  societies  to  help  young 
women.  They  must  help  themselves.  Men  came 
to  Oberlin  for  various  reasons;  women  because 
they  had  nowhere  else  to  go.  But  the  women 
who  came,  like  the  men  who  came,  had  to  bend 
themselves  to  toil,  but  under  different  circum- 
stances. It  was  good  for  them.  As  the  httle  tree 
on  the  mountain-side,  beaten  by  the  wind  and 
grappled  by  the  storm,  roots  itself  and  is  all  the 
more  of  a  tree  for  its  fierce  encounter,  so  these 
young  women  gathered  strength  by  the  storms  of 
opposition  and  the  obstacles  that  beset  their 
way. 

True,  it  cut  to  the  core  when  the  man  who 
taught  school  no  more  and  no  better  received  $30 
a  month  for  his  teaching,  while  his  sister  received 
only  $4  for  hers.  Did  they  weakly  surrender 
when  that  pittance  came  to  hand  ;  give  up  the  con- 
test for  themselves,  and  go  back  to  sew  to  help  to 
educate  young  men  ?  Oh  no  ;  not  one  of  them. 
They  stopped  only  to  enter  their  indignant  pro- 
test, and  then  bent  to  double  toil  for  half  pay. 
What  need  to  despond  or  to  despair?  Oberlin 
was  at  the  West.  There  was  our  star  of  hope. 
There  our  Mecca.  It  opened  wide  its  doors  to 
women  and  to  negroes  on  the  same  terms  with 
white  men.  So  without  bating  a  jot  of  heart  or 
hope,  we  accepted,  to  conquer  it,  every  obstacle 
that  lay  between  us  and  this  golden  gate.     How 


3 1 6  OBEKLIN  J  UBILEE. 

thankful  we  were  !  with  what  abounding  hope  we 
came  !  with  what  courage  we  took  up  the  task  of 
earning  our  way  through  college  !  It  is  true, 
some  of  us  worked  for  three  cents  an  hour  and 
boarded  ourselves.  Some  took  in  washing  at  37J 
cents  per  dozen.  One,  whose  rich  father  would 
give  her  no  money,  but  provided  her  with  ample 
store  of  clothes,  sold  the  silk  that  was  for  dresses 
smd  used  the  money  to  clothe  her  mind.  But 
downright  work  was  honored  in  Oberlin,  and  it 
was  shared  by  everybody.  Future  governors  of 
the  State,  members  of  Congress,  generals  of  arm- 
ies, were  part  of  the  working  brigade  of  Oberlin. 
Gen.  Cox,  with  paper  cap  on  his  head,  with 
apron  and  sleeves  rolled  up,  made  the  crackers 
which  on  Sunday  mornings,  with  crust  coffee, 
made  the  breakfast.  Rev.  Antoinette  L.  Brown 
Blackwell  washed  the  dishes  and  I  swept  the 
parlor.  But  toil  and  privation  were  counted  as 
small  dust  in  the  balance  in  comparison  with  the 
treasures  of  knowledge  which  had  been  opened 
to  us  here. 

But  Oberlin  had  not  quite  measured  the  mean- 
ing, nor  was  it  quite  ready  for  the  full  application, 
of  Father  Shipherd's  words  that  "  the  neglected 
and  misjudged  sex  should  have  all  the  instructive 
privileges  which  have  unreasonably  distinguished 
the  leading  sex  from  theirs."  Custom,  which  held 
women  to  silence  in  public  places,  sat  with  the 
Faculty  and  with  the  Ladies'  Board,  and  shook 
its  minatory  finger  at  the  daring  girls  who  wanted 
the  discipline  of  rhetorical  exercises  and  discus- 


OBERLIN  AND    WOMAN.  317 

sions,  and  to  read  their  own  essays  at  Commence- 
ment. But  time  has  altered  all  this  and  settled  it 
right. 

Neither  had  Oberlin  dreamed  that  women 
would  ever  want  to  study  theology.  In  1847 
Antoinette  Brown  and  Lettice  Smith  entered  the 
theological  department,  but  Oberlin  still  reserves 
to  some  future  day  the  honor  it  will  yet  claim 
and  receive  of  being  the  first  to  admit  women  as 
regular  students  in  its  theological  department 
in  direct  preparation  for  the  gospel  ministry. 
The  Oberlin  catalogue  has  never  yet  honored 
itself  by  putting  in  the  names  of  these  women 
as  theological  students.  They  should  be  there 
now,  before  the  good  time  comes  when  the  world 
will  have  learned  that  the  ministry  of  women 
will  win  and  hold  men  to  goodness,  and  is  as 
necessary  to  do  it  as  the  ministry  of  men  which 
has  filled  the  churches  with  women. 

And  what  is  the  result  of  this  example  of  Ober- 
lin ol  fifty  years  of  co-education  ?  It  is  true  Dr. 
Dix  still  holds  his  straw  up  against  Niagara.  Har- 
vard keeps  its  hand  on  its  door-knob;  but  the 
"  annex"  is  there,  and  all  around  behold  more  than 
half  the  colleges  of  the  land  wide  open  to  women. 
Boston  University,  Cornell,  the  State  Universities 
of  Michigan,  Iowa,  Wisconsin,  Kansas,  Nebraska, 
with  all  their  departments,  are  open  to  women,  as 
are  other  colleges  almost  innumerable.  Colleges 
for  women  alone,  Vassar,  Wellesly,  and  Smith, 
have  been  opened.  Some  of  them  send  to  Ober- 
Un  for  women  to  act  as  professors.      The  London 


3l8  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

University  and  those  of  Cambridge  and  Oxford  in 
England  give  their  examinations  to  women.  Even 
India,  breaking  its  triple  bondage  of  women, 
sends  to  us  her  daughters  to  study  medicine,  while 
a  young  East  India  woman  endeavors  to  impart 
to  her  government  and  to  her  countrywomen  an 
idea  of  the  need  of  education  of  women. 

In  ten  thousand  homes  all  round  us  are  educated 
mothers  who  bring  to  the  grave  duty  of  rearing 
sons  and  daughters  well  stored  and  well  discip- 
lined minds,  and  here  is  the  centre  of  our  national 
safety.  The  State  summons  woman  to  deal  with 
some  of  its  most  difficult  problems.  The  feminine 
thought,  the  feminine  judgment  and  view  are  be- 
ing called  for  and  added  to  the  masculine  thought, 
judgment,  and  view,  in  the  great  questions  which 
involve  human  interests  and  which  need  the  wis- 
dom of  all  for  the  good  of  all.  Oberlin  dropped  its 
pebble  in  the  great  ocean,  and  the  widening  wave- 
lets have  touched  every  shore.     But 

"New  occasions  teach  new  duties  ; 
Time  makes  ancient  good  uncouth, 
They  must  upward  still,  and  onward. 
Who  would  keep  abreast  of  truth." 

The  work  for  women  is  not  done. 

I  should  be  no  true  daughter  of  Oberlin,  still 
less  should  I  be  true  to  myself,  if  here  to-day  I 
failed  to  ask  this  younger  Oberlin  to  take  another 
and  the  next  step  in  the  great  movement  for  the 
political  equality  of  women. 

"  Our  fathers  to  their  graves  have  gone; 
Their  fight  is  fought,  their  battle  won. 


OBERLIN  AND    WOMAN,  31^ 

But  sterner  trials  wait  the  race 
That  rises  in  their  honored  place — 
A  moral  warfare  with  the  crime 
And  folly  of  an  evil  time." 

That  crime  and  that  folly  are  the  withholding 
from  women  the  opportunity  of  giving  consent  to 
the  laws  they  are  required  to  obey.  It  was  for 
this  principle  that  our  fathers  contended  in  the 
war  of  the  Revolution.  They  sought  to  wrench 
from  George  III.  their  right  to  govern  themselves, 
the  right  not  to  be  taxed  and  governed  without 
their  consent,  as  women  are  to-day.  At  that  time 
they  held  up,  radiant  v/ith  God's  own  sunlight. 
His  great  self-evident  truth  that  governments  de- 
rive their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the 
governed — the  consent  of  the  governed  women 
not  less  than  the  consent  of  the  governed  men. 

To  withhold  a  right  is  as  much  a  crime  as  to 
withhold  a  purse — far  more,  for  you  may  find  your 
purse  or  replenish  it ;  but  he  who  keeps  back  my 
right  keeps  back  that  which  not  enriches  him  but 
wrongs  me,  and  wrongs  whoever  has  the  right 
withheld. 

Oberlin  is  proud  that  it  reached  down  its  hand 
to  help  the  slaves  to  their  liberty.  Oberlin.  is 
proud  that  it  reached  out  its  hand  to  the  ''  mis- 
judged and  neglected  sex,"  and  said,  *'  The  leaves 
of  the  tree  of  knowledge  are  for  you  as  for  us." 
Another  deed  waits  for  Oberlin  to  add  to  its 
crown  of  honor,  and  that  is,  to  affirm  the  principle 
of  the  consent  of  the  governed  in  its  application 
to  women.     As  I  sat  here  I   looked  up  to  your 


320  OBERLIN  JUBILEE, 

torn  and  tattered  flag.  It  marks  the  battle-fields 
where  your  soldiers  carried  it  for  freedom.  But  I 
remember  that  other  flag's  with  their  stars  and 
bars  are  floating  on  our  hilltops  everywhere,  and 
they  float  over  twenty  millions  of  women  who  are 
taxed  without  representation  and  governed  with- 
out their  consent.  When  the  war  was  ended  and 
the  Government  asked  in  its  reconstruction, "What 
shall  we  do  with  the  negroes?"  the  answer  was, 
"  These  men  have  fought  our  battle  and  carried 
our  flag.  Now  let  them  have  the  ballot."  And  they 
got  it.  And  then  it  asked,  "  What  shall  be  done 
with  the  rebels?"  and  with  one  voice  the  people 
said,  '*  Let  them  have  amnesty  and  universal 
suffrage.  And  they  got  it.  And  then  it  was 
asked,  "  What  shall  we  do  with  Jefferson  Davis — 
the  man  who  had  been  the  greatest  traitor  to  his 
country  ?"  And  the  nation,  looking  over  all  its 
borders  to  find  the  worst  punishment  it  could  in- 
flict upon  him,  did  not  put  him  in  prison  for  life, 
did  not  set  him  to  hard  labor,  did  not  load  him 
with  chains  that  should  clank  in  human  ears,  but 
it  took  away  his  right  to  vote.  It  made  him  the 
political  peer  of  every  woman  in  the  land.  When 
the  women  w^ho  had  in  camp  and  on  the  field 
nursed  the  soldiers,  who  had  turned  night  into  day 
to  raise  supplies  for  the  Sanitary  Commission  and 
to  help  the  brave  boys  in  blue — when  these  women 
went  to  Washington  and  asked,  "  In  the  recon- 
struction of  the  Government,  what  will  you  do 
with  us?"  the  Government  left  us  all  the  peers  of 
Jefferson  Davis. 


OBERLIN  AND    WOMAN.  32 1 

Now  it  is  to  save  women  from  this  wrong  and 
shame  that  Oberlin  should  take  its  next  step.  So 
to-day,  standmg  here  and  seeing  what  Oberlin  has 
done  for  women,  pardon  me  for  appealing,  as  one 
of  twenty  millons  who  may  be  taxed,  and  fined, 
and  imprisoned,  and  hung,  and  have  never  a  word 
to  say  about  it,  as  one  whom  the  law  touches  at 
every  point,  reaching  its  hand  into  my  cradle  and 
deciding  all  about  my  baby,  what  shall  be  its  rela- 
tion to  me  and  mine  to  it,  that  touches  the  dollar  I 
earn,  the  deed  I  have  to  sign,  the  property  I  own, 
and  plunges  me  into  the  weal  or  woe  of  the  great 
Commonwealth  of  States,  and  leaves  me  no  voice 
about  it — in  behalf  of  twenty  millions  of  women, 
on  this  good  day  I  stand  here  in  Oberlin  begging 
pardon  for  going  beyond  the  limit  of  my  subject 
to  say,  O  men  who  have  been  so  wise,  so  kind,  and 
so  just  to  women,  take  one  step  more  and  help  lift 
us  from  peerage  with  Jefferson  Davis. 


THE  FUTURE  WORK  OF  OBERLIN. 

BY   PRO-FESSOR  JUDSON   SMITH. 

The  review  of  the  first  fifty  years  of  our  college 
life  is  now  complete.  What  Oberlin  was  meant  to 
be,  and  what  Oberlin  has  achieved,  we  all  under- 
stand as  never  before,  and  our  gratitude  and 
loyalty  have  gained  new  life  and  depth  from  this 
survey.  But  we  are  here  to  make  history  as  well 
as  to  record  it.  We  have  gathered  to  review  the 
past,  and  also  to  shape  the  future.  It  cannot  be 
inappropriate  or  idle  for  us  briefly  to  look  at  the 
problems  of  the  coming  years.  The  height  to 
which  these  fifty  years,  with  all  their  rich  expe- 
riences have  brought  us,  this  happy  place  where 
we  stand  together  to-day,  affords  a  favorable  point 
from  which  to  cast  our  eyes  onward  and  discern, 
as  we  may,  what  Oberhn  has  yet  to  do,  and  what 
is  our  part  in  the  achievement  of  that  destiny. 

I.  And,  in  the  first  place,  it  must  be  plain  to  us 
all  that  the  history  of  Oberlin  has  reached  no  true 
conclusion.  We  are  in  the  midst  of  plans,  of  meas- 
ures begun  but  not  yet  complete,  of  academic  life 
in  full  current  and  with  countless  leagues  to  tra- 
verse ere  it  has  run  its  proper  course.  Observe 
the  facts  which  sustain  this  view: 

I.  The  department  of  theology  is  fully  manned, 


THE  FUTURE    WORK  OF  OBERLIN.  323 

gathers  classes  of  good  numbers,  of  excellent  pro- 
mise, of  real  enthusiasm  in  their  studies,  and  finds 
the  demand  for  its  graduates  more  active  and 
wide-spread  each  year.*  It  is  too  healthy  a  stock, 
in  too  generous  fruitage,  with  too  broad  a  need  for 
its  products  for  any  one  to  dream  that  its  work  is 
done.  If  this  school  of  theology  was  needed  in  the 
first  days  of  its  life,  the  need  is  tenfold  greater 
now.  The  seminary  enjoys  the  confidence  of  the 
Christian  public  throughout  the  land,  the  hearty 
support  of  its  own  denomination,  the  growing 
favor  of  those  who  value  sound  learning,  conjoined 
with  sound  doctrine.  All  the  great  missionary 
boards  look  hither  for  recruits  to  their  fields,  and 
the  more  they  secure  the  more  they  desire  to 
secure.  During  the  last  fifteen  years  we  have 
been  educating  men  in  this  seminary  for  important 
pastorates  in  our  own  and  neighboring  States,  and 
for  many  important  posts  in  teaching ;  for  Tennes- 
nessee  and  Alabama,  and  Washington  and  Texas, 
for  Oregon,  Dakota,  Colorado  and  Utah ;  for 
India,  China,  Japan,  South  Africa,  Western  Africa, 
and  Micronesia.  And  every  year  the  calls  to  all 
these  fields  are  growing  in  number  and  urgency. 
If  we  were  educating  three  times  as  many  men  in 
the  seminary,  we  should  not  yet  overtake  the  de- 
mand. The  failure  of  this  seminary,  or  its  defec- 
tion from  evangelical  doctrine,  would  come  like  a 

*  Six  professors  fill  its  chairs  of  instruction;  it  enrols  forty 
students,  and  graduates  from  ten  to  twelve  each  year.  Among 
the  seven  Cong.  Theo.  Seminaries  of  the  country,  it  stands  third 
in  point  of  numbers  graduated  yearly. 


324  OB E RUN  JUBILEE. 

heavy  calamity  upon  all  the  most  ag-gressive  agen- 
cies of  the  Christian  Church.  Here,  then,  is  the 
compact  description  of  a  great  mission  for  this 
seminary  in  coming  years,  which  may  well  task 
the  utmost  powers  of  its  Faculty  and  awaken  the 
liveliest  hopes  and  anticipations  among  all  its 
friends.  The  plan  which  the  founder  so  wisely 
sketched  stretches  out  before  us  to-day,  the  unful- 
filled part  so  vast  that  we  seem  as  yet  to  have  ac- 
complished nothing,  in  the  comparison. 

2.  The  department  of  philosophy  and  the  arts 
shows  equal  vigor  and  growth  and  promise.  It 
stands  at  the  dawn  of  a  nobler  day  than  any  that 
has  shone  upon  it  in  the  past.  It  has  always  en- 
joyed the  services  of  an  able  faculty ;  but  it  is 
better  manned  than  ever  before.  It  has  always 
exacted  a  high  grade  of  scholarship  ;  but  its  stand- 
ards were  never  so  high  as  now.  Its  classes  are 
large  and  steadily  increasing.*  Every  element  of 
vigorous  and  successful  life  is  here.  Able  and 
scholarly  teachers  ;  large,  carefull3^-graded,  hard- 
working and  enthusiastic  classes ;  increased  facil- 
ities that  keep  step  with  the  real  improvements  of 
the  age;  the  confidence  and  steadily  growing 
patronage  of  a  large  and  wealthy  constituency. 
These  are  the  obvious  features  of  the  case,  and  they 
make  out  a  mission  for  the  college  as  broad  and  rich 
and  enduring  as  culture  itself  and  all  hberal  studies. 
The  college  enjoys  a  high  and  acknowledged  em- 


*  It  enrolls  about  200  in  the  four  college  classes,  and  150  in  the 
literary  classes.     Twelve  professors  teach  in  its  classes. 


THE  FUTURE    IVOR  A'  OF  OB  E  RUN.      .    325 

inence  in  this  State  and  in  the  Central  States  ,• 
and  there  is  scarcely  a  limit  to  the  service  she  can 
render  to  the  cause  of  higher  education  through- 
out the  West  and  Southwest.  There  is  no  obstacle, 
no  prejudice,  no  barrier  to  the  amplest  service  to 
education  and  literature  and  science  we  can  desire 
to  render,  save  what  we  make  ourselves. 

3.  The  preparatory  school  is  in  a  most  flourish- 
ing condition,  and  gives  most  excellent  promise 
for  the  future.  Its  best  work  has  only  just  begun. 
It  is  needed  more,  and  it  can  do  more  to-day,  than 
at  any  previous  date  in  its  history.  It  never  en- 
joyed the  services  of  so  full  a  corps  of  permanent 
instructors,  and  the  effects  of  wise  administration 
are  apparent  at  many  points."^  The  men  trained 
here  generally  outstrip  the  men  who  come  to 
college  from  other  fitting  schools;  and  the  high 
standard  for  admission  to  the  college,  and  the  high 
scholarship  gained  in  the  college  course,  are  possi- 
ble chiefly  because  of  the  superior  work  our  pre- 
paratory school  is  doing.  The  teachers  of  this 
school  are  trained  to  a  proven  capacity  for  supe- 
rior work,  and  are  a  growing  source  from  which 
our  own  Faculty  and  the  Faculties  of  other  col- 
leges are  reinforced.  At  the  present  time  we  fit 
as  many  pupils  for  college  as  any  other  training- 
school  in  the  land  ;  and  it  is  but  the  truth  to  say 
that  they  are  fitted  in  a  style  worthy  of  Williston 
and  Andover  and  Exeter. 

*  The  classical  fitting-school  enrolled  306  students  last  year, 
and  graduated  50.  Its  instruction  is  given  by  the  principal  and 
10  tutors. 


326  OBERLIN  J UBILEE. 

4.  The  school  of  music  is  prosperous  also,  and 
here  our  mission  spreads  before  us  broad  and  fair. 
Students  gather  in  greater  numbers  every  year; 
teachers  of  superior  training  and  ability  give  in- 
struction ;  the  favorable  attention  of  the  musical 
world  is  turned  toward  us ;  gifts  of  generous 
amount  are  coming  to  place  this  school  on  a 
foundation  of  permanence  and  strength.  And  to 
an  unexpected  degree  this  school  is  affording  to 
us  new  sources  of  influence,  and  a  widening  field 
of  service  to  culture  and  religion.* 

This,  then,  is  the  situation  which  greets  us  in  a 
rapid  survey  of  each  department  of  the  college. 
Everywhere  we  find  the  proofs  of  life,  of  growth, 
of  multiplying  needs,  of  enlarging  results,  of  higher 
aims,  of  broader  plans.  No  man  is  thinking  how 
all  this  academic  work  may  be  brought  to  a  natural 
conclusion  and  make  a  decent  end  ;  but  all  are  con- 
sidering how  it  may  be  extended  and  enriched  to 
meet  the  opportunities  of  the  hour.  Oberlin  is  not 
waiting  for  students,  or  hunting  for  work ;  she  is 
constantly  striving  to  keep  step  with  her  oppor- 
tunities, to  provide  herself  with  adequate  equip- 
ment for  the  work  that  presses  upon  her.  The 
agitating  question  in  her  councils  is  not  how  to 
justify  her  right  to  exist,  or  to  show  that  she  has  a 
place  to  fill ;  but  how  she  may  worthily  instruct 
the  multitudes  that  seek  her  halls,  how  she  may 

*  The  enrollment  in  the  school  of  music  last  year  was  461.  The 
instruction  is  given  by  the  director  and  a  corps  of  permanent 
teachers,  numbering  11  the  present  year. 


.  THE   FUTURE    WORK  OF  OBERLIN.  32/ 

most  successfully  fulfil  the  grand  trust  which  God 
is  committing-  to  her  hands. 

II.  There  is  another  phase  of  the  subject  to 
consider,  another  class  of  questions  we  may  fairly 
raise.  Are  not  all  the  objects  which  Oberlin  was 
planted  to  promote  now  fully  secured?  Is  there 
left  any  distinctive  mission  for  her  to  accomplish  ? 
She  has  wrought  a  good  work,  and  wrought  it 
bravely  and  well ;  what  more  remains  ?  The  true 
answer  must  be  found  by  observing  what  Oberlin 
was  meant  to  be,  and  by  studying  the  results  that 
have  been  gained.  I  grant  that  the  past  is  glorious, 
beyond  our  feeble  praise.  The  trump  that  stirred 
men's  hearts,  and  gathered  from  far  and  near  elect 
souls  to  plant  in  this  wilderness  of  the  West  a 
Christian  College  for  the  needs  of  the  nation,  rang 
out  clear  and  thrilling  notes,  and  the  nation  has 
heard  and  learned  the  strain.  It  was  the  music 
of  the  best  life  of  the  times,  and  of  the  ages,  to 
which  the  College  set  its  march.  But  to  the  in- 
structed ear  a  trumpet-sound  is  in  the  air  to-day  ; 
blown  from  the  same  instrument,  lifting  up  the 
same  theme  ;  and  our  hearts  are  loudly  beating  to 
keep  step  to  the  glorious  strain,  and  let  our  Alma 
Mater  still  follow  the  highest  things  and  seek  the 
noblest  ends. 

I.  It  is  sometimes  said,  "  Oberlin  was  meant  to 
be  an  anti-slavery  school,  a  manual  labor  school,  a 
temperance  school."  But  we  all  know  better  than 
this.  Oberlin  was  not  planted  here  to  make  labor 
honorable,  to  break  the  fetters  of  the  slave,  to  beat 
down  the  strongholds  of  intemperance.     She  has 


328  O BERLIN  JUBILEE. 

dealt  well-directed,  heavy  blows  against  the  evils 
of  her  times ;  she  has  fearlessly  incurred  reproach 
and  odium,  and  evil-speaking,  in  order  to  open 
hospitable  doors  to  all  who  sought  her  aid ;  but 
she  seeks  a  grander  end  than  the  destruction  of 
any  single  evil.  If  there  had  been  no  slavery  in  the 
land,  she  would  have  been  planted,  and  she  would 
have  taken  root,  just  as  she  has  done. 

Oberlin's  work,  as  a  Christian  college  planted  in 
the  West  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  third  of 
this  century,  has  brought  her  face  to  face  with 
slavery  and  intemperance,  and  similar  evils  exist* 
ent  in  the  nation;  and  she  has  borne  her  part, 
amid  the  strife  of  the  times,  with  as  sure  an 
instinct  of  righteousness,  with  as  clear  discernment 
of  the  true  office  of  manly  culture  in  an  age  like 
this,  as  it  was  given  her  to  command.  And  in 
every  clearing  of  the  road  to  success,  in  every 
victory  of  liberty  and  right,  she  has  rejoiced,  as  in 
the  removal  of  obstacles  and  the  enhancement  of 
helps  in  the  work  of  Christian  education,  to  which 
alone  she  has  been  dedicated  from  the  first.  Her 
real  work  was  never  dependent  upon  such  external 
conditions,  and  it  has  gone  forward  steadily  from 
the  first,  but  slightly  touched  by  these  public 
agitations,  and  the  downfall  of  slavery  so  far  from 
ending  her  mission  has  made  it  possible  for  her  to 
achieve  her  proper  work  in  fuller  measure  and  in 
higher  degrees. 

Oberlin  College  was  founded  to  promote  culture, 
science  and  art,  to  raise  up  Christian  scholars  for 
all  the  growing  needs  of  the  great  West  and  the 


THE   FUTURE    WORK   OF  OBERLIN.  329 

wide  world.  The  end  to  be  gained  was  the  same 
as  that  which  Harvard  College,  and  Yale,  and 
Dartmouth,  and  Bowdoin,  and  Williams,  and  Am- 
herst, were  meant  to  aid  ;  the  same  essentially  as  the 
great  universities  of  Europe  were  built  to  promote. 
I  simply  state  a  historical  fact ;  the  modern 
world  owes  its  great  schools  and  academic  found- 
ations to  the  Christian  Church.  Whatever  of  good 
is  in  them,  whatever  of  priceless  value  flows  cut  of 
them  to  society  and  civilization,  all  this  is  due  to 
the  faith  which  has  created  the  needs  to  which 
they  administer  so  grandly,  and  which  has  also 
created  them  to  minister  to  those  needs.  Oberlin 
College  thus  comes  of  a  noble  stock,  and  boasts  a 
venerable  lineage.  She  stands  among  the  schools 
which  the  Church  has  planted  in  every  land  she 
has  visited,  in  every  people  she  has  won  to  faith 
and  civilized  life.  Oxford  and  Cambridge  have 
flourished  for  more  than  six  centuries,  and  England 
needs  them  still.  Leipsic  boasts  four  centuries  of 
prosperous  life,  and  her  fruitage  is  more  precious 
with  every  year.  Harvard's  two  centuries  and  a 
half  have  not  exhausted  her  treasures,  but  have 
rendered  her  equal,  at  length,  to  the  proper  work 
of  a  great  school  of  the  liberal  arts.  As  long  as 
Christianity  needs  propagandists  and  preachers,  as 
long  as  man  needs  culture  to  train  him  for  the 
perfect  life,  as  long  as  ignorance  and  sin  becloud 
man's  mind  and  debase  his  heart,  so  long  will  the 
mission  of  the  Christian  college  endure.  And  as 
long  as  Oberlin  is  faithful  to  the  grand  purpose  of 
her  founders,  and    yearly  sends  forth   increasing 


330  0 BERLIN  JUBILEE. 

numbers  of  soundly-educated  men  and  women  de- 
voted to  the  spread  of  knowledge  and  righteousness 
in  the  earth,  so  long  will  Oberlin's  mission  endure 
and  her  work  still  be  needed  in  the  earth.  If  any 
one  can  tell  how  long  Harvard  College  will  be 
needed,  or  what  Amherst  has  still  to  do,  we  can 
tell  how  long  Oberlin's  work  will  flourish,  v/hat 
work  still  remains  for  us  to  do. 

2.  But  let  us  descend  to  particulars.  There  is  a 
distinct  call  for  Oberlin  to  heighten  her  standards 
of  scholarship  and  to  increase  her  facilities  for 
education.  Her  own  traditions,  and  her  relations 
to  other  colleges,  emphasize  this  demand.  There 
is  no  occasion  for  criticism  or  shame  in  view  of  the 
standards  which  are  now  maintained.  They  are 
much  higher  than  they  were  twenty  years  ago; 
they  are  abreast  of  those  in  the  most  advanced 
schools  in  the  interior;  and  they  are  gradually 
rising.  But  no  one  of  the  teachers  here  is  alto- 
gether contented  with  the  work  actually  done  in 
our  classes,  or  deems  our  standards  all  that  they 
ought  to  be.  We  ought  to  do  better  work  than 
we  are  now  doing  in  every  department,  better 
work  than  we  can  do  with  the  facilities  now  at 
hand.  The  work  of  instruction  is  not  sufficiently 
distributed.  Each  professor  teaches  a  greater 
number  of  subjects  or  more  hours  than  he  can 
successfully  carry.  The  corps  of  instruction  needs 
judicious  enlargement.  The  library  is  pitiably  in- 
adequate to  our  wants,  and  has  no  certain  income 
for  enlargement.  And  the  range  and  quality  of 
the  scholarship  wx  can  secure  are  affected  directly 


THE  FUTURE    WORK   OF  OBERLm.  33 1 

and  disastrously  by  this  want.  Better  recitation- 
rooms,  more  suitably  heated  and  ventilated,  are  a 
present  imperative  necessity.  And  all  these  things 
are  necessities,  because  Oberlin  has  such  a  vast 
and  central  work  committed  to  her.  She  sets  the 
patterns  in  many  colleges.  She  fixes  standards  of 
scholarship  over  a  wide  domain.  She  is  educating 
the  teachers  for  many  schools.  This  grand  office 
has  already  come  to  her,  and  she  must  address 
herself  intelligently  and  energetically  to  the  task 
she  has  in  hand. 

To  speak  thus  of  the  position  of  leadership  which 
Oberlin  holds  is  not  making  an  idle  boast,  but 
simply  recognizing  obvious  facts.  But  to  speak 
of  these  things  is  also  to  sketch  the  mission  of 
Oberlin  in  the  most  inspiring  terms.  She  has  the 
power  to  confer  a  wide  and  lasting  benefit  on  all 
the  educational  forces  of  the  great  West  and  South- 
west, and  the  possession  of  this  power  lays  her 
under  the  most  imperative  obligation  to  use  it  to 
the  highest  possible  degree.  For  the  sake  of  scores 
of  colleges  and  hundreds  of  academies  throughout 
a  domain  as  vast  as  the  old  Roman  world,  Oberlin 
is  called  upon  to  do  the  very  best  work  in  making 
scholars  that  can  be  done  anywhere  in  the  land  or 
in  the  world.  This  is  a  matter  not  to  think  of 
twice,  not  to  linger  upon,  or  question,  as  though  it 
had  some  savor  of  ambition  or  secular  pride,  but 
to  resolve  upon  with  energy,  to  choose  with 
solemn  joy,  to  execute  as  a  high  trust  from  the 
Lord  Almighty.  We  shall  be  as  much  lacking  in 
duty  if  we  draw  back  or  act  timidly  here,  as  the 


332  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

founder  himself  would  have  been  if  he  had  yielded 
to  the  first  rebuffs  of  fortune  and  had  abandoned 
his  work  ere  it  were  well  begun. 

3.  Another  fact  in  the  case  confirms  the  view  we 
are  urging.  Oberlin  stands  in  the  midst  of  many 
colleges  which  are  able  and  eager  to  compete  with 
her,  in  most  just  rivalry  for  the  palm  of  excellence 
in  work.  She  can  maintain  her  present  rank,  and 
advance  it  only  by  making  the  scholarship  which 
she  requires  and  secures  of  the  very  highest  order. 
She  must  constantly  prove  her  purpose  and  power 
to  give  a  broad,  deep,  and  rich  culture,  to  take  an 
honorable  and  leading  place  in  all  scholarly  work, 
or  it  will  soon  be  found  easy  to  dispense  with  her 
services  altogether.  The  colleges  that  give  the  best 
training,  that  are  served  by  the  ablest  teachers,  and 
turn  out  the  best  scholars,  are  the  colleges  of  the 
future.  There  is  no  escape  from  this  law.  We 
ought  not  to  desire  to  escape  from  its  sweep. 
There  is  nothing^lse  which  can  be  substituted  for 
thorough  scholarship  in  the  work  and  arrange- 
ments of  a  college.  Good  religious  conditions, 
indispensable  as  they  may  be,  will  never  compen- 
sate for  poor  scholastic  training.  Piety,  however 
priceless,  is  no  just  equivalent  for  scholarship. 
General  capacity,  sound  sense,  good  judgment, 
however  useful,  are  not  culture  or  learning,  and 
cannot  be  accepted  as  proper  substitutes  for  them. 
The  college  studies,  rightly  pursued,  will  doubt- 
less yield  all  these  in  good  degree  ;  but  they  must 
yield    something  more — sound,  accurate,  finished 


THE  FUTURE    WORK  OF  0 BERLIN,  333 

scholarship,  competent  to  the  highest  tasks  ot  the 
age,  or  they  have  failed  in  their  principal  aim. 

And  Oberlin  stands  under  these  conditions  just 
as  completely  as  any  other  college  in  the  land : 
and  in  the  future,  even  more  than  in  the  past,  she 
must  stand  or  fall  by  the  scholarship  of  her  alumni. 
The  breadth  and  permanence  of  her  Christian  in- 
fluence, the  supreme  interest  at  stake,  are  depend- 
ent on  this  condition.  If  she  would  render  the 
greatest  possible  service  to  the  growth  of  Christ's 
kingdom  in  this  and  other  lands,  her  graduates 
must  be  known  to  be  competent  for  the  most 
responsible  posts,  must  bear  with  them  public  con- 
fidence and  respect  as  scholars,  as  well  as  Christian 
men.  If  they  are  deficient  here,  the  opportunities 
of  largest  service  will  certainly  pass  to  other  hands. 
The  time  has  fully  come,  if  indeed  it  did  not  come 
fifty  years  ago,  when  Oberlin's  first  and  foremost 
title  to  honor  and  support  must  be  the  thorough- 
ness and  richness  ol  the  scholarship  she  maintains 
and  inculcates. 

I  do  not  mean  to  disparage  her  religious  char- 
acter; I  am  incapable  of  such  undervaluation. 
But  as  one  supremely  interested  in  the  Christian 
character  of  the  culture  we  give,  I  still  insist  that 
our  strength  and  usefulness  in  the  future  must 
depend  on  the  high  scholarship  we  require  and 
secure.  This  is  the  only  way  in  which  we  can 
make  the  Christian  quality  of  our  education  re- 
spectable and  commanding,  as.it  ought  to  be.  We 
must  show  that  genuine  piety  is  no  hindrance,  but 
a  positive  help,  to  high  scholarship :  that  the  one 


3  34  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

true  way  to  the  highest  culture  is  the  equal  and 
symmetrical  development  of  sound  character  and 
sound  learning,  the  growth  of  manhood  and  intel- 
lect at  the  same  time,  under  the  same  conditions. 
The  truth  lies  with  our  theory  and  practice  in  this 
thing,  absolutely,  unquestionably.  The  right  of 
the  case  is  on  our  side  without  a  doubt,  and  it  is 
one  principal  thing  we  have  to  do  to  demonstrate 
this  truth ;  to  force  it  upon  men's  attention  and 
convictions  by  the  grand  success  of  our  work  in 
Christian  education.  We  must  not  yield  an  inch 
of  advantage,  not  one  least  note  of  superiority,  to 
the  secular  training  of  the  times,  lest  a  false  and  in- 
jurious inference  be  drawn  from  our  interest  in  the 
Christian  element  of  our  work.  Our  scholars  must 
be  able  to  stand  side  by  side  with  the  scholars  of 
the  secular  schools,  their  peers  in  every  point  and 
bearing  of  scholarship,  and  with  all  the  advantages 
derived  from  the  religious  training  we  give  as  just 
so  much  clear,  unquestioned  gain.  I  am  disposed 
to  say  that  we  ought  to  aim  at  a  broader  and 
better  proportioned  culture,  and  I  think  we  must 
prepare  ourselves  to  secure  it.  But  at  least  we 
must  not  fall  one  hair's-breath  behind  the  very  best 
w^ork  which  any  school  attains. 

This  has  been  the  aim  of  the  college  from  the 
first.  I  am  urging  no  "new  departure"  here;  the 
Inspiring  traditions  of  fifty  years  of  successful  life 
that  fall  on  us  to-day,  point  us  this  wa)^  Oberlin's 
great  mission  still  bears  us  on,  and  requires  her  to 
give  her  sons  and  daughters  the  amplest  equip- 
ment for  the  work  of  Christian  men  and  women 


THE   FUTURE    WORK  OF  0 BERLIN.  335 

in  the  coming  centuries  which  can  be  furnished  in 
America  or  in  the  world.  The  breadth  and  vast- 
ness  and  enduring  power  of  the  service  she  can 
thus  render  to  education  and  religion,  to  the 
Church  and  to  civilization,  are  enough  to  fill  our 
thoughts  with  a  deathless  purpose,  and  our  hearts 
with  solemn  awe.  Let  us  record  here  to-day  the 
sacred  vow,  that  as  far  as  in  us  lies,  by  patient  toil, 
by  sagacious  plan,  by  generous  gift,  by  unfaltering 
enthusiasm,  by  whole-souled  consecration,  under 
the  rich  blessing  of  Almighty  God,  all  this  grand 
mission  shall  be  fulfilled,  all  this  glorious  harvest 
shall  be  gathered  in. 

III.  The  distinctive  and  pronounced  Christian 
spirit,  which  has  presided  over  the  founding  and 
growth  of  the  college,  must  be  perpetuated  and 
made  even  more  persuasive  and  controlling.  This 
has  been  our  strength  and  glory  in  past  years ;  it 
is  the  heavenly  sign  by  which  we  are  still  to  con- 
quer and  advance.  Our  distinctive  character  has 
been  formed  by  reason  of  the  active  religious  life 
that  has  been  fostered,  which  has  permeated  all  the 
college  life  and  teaching  as  a  vital  atmosphere  and 
molding  power.  The  experience  of  fifty  years 
confirms  the  wisdom  of  the  founders  and  fathers, 
and  not  one  of  us  all,  Trustees,  Faculty,  Alumni, 
Friends,  would  wish  to  see  one  backward  step  in 
this  purpose  of  making  education  here  Christian  in 
name  and  Christian  to  the  core.  There  should  be 
no  mistake  on  this  point.  The  college  was  not 
established  in  order  to  convert  its  students  to  the 
Christian  life.     It  was  built,  and  is  maintained,  to 


33^  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

educate  men  and  women  in  the  liberal  arts  for  all 
the  life  and  labor  which  belong  to  educated  minds. 
Its  first,  its  great,  its  unchanging  aim  is  culture; 
that  is,  perfect  manhood,  the  highest  competency 
for  all  life's  duties.  And,  as  a  primary  and  neces- 
sary condition  to  that  end.  Christian  influences  and 
teaching  are  constantly  sought  and  applied.  Just 
because  we  are  to  seek  the  highest  culture,  we 
must  keep  the  religious  tone  active,  healthy  and 
controlling.  We  do  not  gather  students  here  sim- 
ply to  make  them  Christians,  but  we  make  them 
Christians  in  order  to  make  them  better  scholars, 
in  order  to  heighten  the  quality  and  enlarge  the 
volume  of  their  manhood  and  of  their  intellectual 
force. 

And  this  is  not  a  needless  or  unworthy  aim  that 
we  pursue.  It  lies  in  the  line  of  the  advancing 
civilization  of  our  age,  along  the  very  track  which 
the  best  life  of  man  on  earth  is  to  pursue  in  the 
coming  years.  Christianity  is  gathering  a  deeper 
hold  and  a  wider  sway  among  men  wdth  every 
circling  year;  all  facts  proclaim  it.  The  world  is 
to  be  more  thoroughly  Christian  in  spirit  and  in 
aim  fifty  years  hence  than  it  is  now  ;  no  reasonable 
mind  can  question  this.  And  the  men  and  women 
who  are  to  do  the  great  work  of  the  world  in  this 
coming  century  not  onl}^  must  be  possessed  of  the 
richest  culture,  they  must  also  be  permeated  to  the 
very  heart  with  Christian  truth,  set  on  fire  with  the 
enthusiasms  of  the  gospel,  as  leaders  in  the  grand 
march  of  Christian  civilization  around  the  globe. 
A  wise   forecast   of   the    years   demonstrates   the 


THE  FUTURE    WORK  OF  0 BERLIN.  337 

wisdom,  the  imperative  necessity,  of  Oberlin's 
maintaining  her  primitive  traditions,  and  implant- 
ing in  every  student's  mind  the  knowledge  of  God, 
in  every  heart  the  fixed  purpose  of  loyalty  to  Jesus 
Christ.  More  than  at  the  beginning,  because  her 
influence  sweeps  a  wider  field,  it  is  incumbent  on 
her  to  set  before  her  pupils  the  commanding  ideals 
of  the  Christian  life  and  service,  to  fire  their  hearts 
with  enthusiastic  devotion  to  Christ  and  His  king- 
dom of  grace,  and  to  sublime  and  refine  all  intel- 
lectual toil  and  gain  wath  the  spirit  of  unselfish 
devotion  and  Christian  love.  If  anything  is  plain 
to  us,  as  we  cast  our  eyes  along  the  coming  years, 
it  is  the  wisdom  of  holding  fast  our  Christian  tra- 
ditions and  of  increasing  their  power. 

IV.  An  interesting  question  may  be  raised  as  to 
the  lines  of  future  growth  in  the  College.  There 
is  no  occasion  to  modify  the  general  plan  on  which 
the  College,  was  founded.  Too  much  praise  can 
scarcely  be  given  to  the  remarkable  foresight  of 
the  founder  and  the  equally  remarkable  courage 
of  the  fathers.  Fifty  years  ago,  first  and  alone 
among  the  colleges  of  the  land,  Oberlin  threw  her 
doors  wide  open  to  all  comers,  irrespective  of  sex 
or  color,  and  maintained  that  generous  stand 
through  howling  storm  and  frowning  night.  The 
morning  has  dawned,  and  the  storm  is  laid  ;  and 
hundreds  of  colleges  now,  catching  the  noble  in- 
spiration, welcome  all  who  come.  Oberlin  will 
still  reach  hospitable,  helping  hands  to  every  one 
who  seeks  her  aid  ;  and  she  will  cultivate  in  her 
halls,  as  of  old,  the  spirit  of  universal  brotherhood, 


338  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

the  love  of  liberty,  a  sacred  animosity  toward 
every  social  prejudice  and  prescriptive  wrong-, 
towards  every  force  that  bars  the  way  to  culture 
and  success  for  any  human  soul.  Brothers  and 
sisters  will  still  sit  tog'ether  in  her  classes  and  wear 
her  honors ;  men  of  all  nations  and  hues  will  find 
an  equal  welcome  and  honorable  recognition.  In 
these  things  she  takes  no  backward  step,  nor 
regrets  one  syllable  or  deed  of  all  her  history. 
The  historic  position  of  the  College  in  these  things 
is  to  be  sacredly  maintained,  as  a  precious  inherit- 
ance from  past  years,  as  a  welcome  inspiration  for 
all  the  years  to  come. 

But  there  are  changes  that  do  not  touch  the  es- 
sential character  of  the  College,  which  we  may  well 
expect  to  come,  and  in  which  we  all  shall  rejoice. 
Every  graduate  of  past  years  marks  some  such 
change  as  he  comes  back  to  these  jubilee  greet- 
ings. And  many  others  are  sure  to  follow.  They 
are  the  signs  of  growth,  not  of  deterioration  or 
decay.  As  resources  accumulate,  as  the  needs  of 
>uir  constituency  grow  in  number  and  variety,  the 
work  of  the  College  will  enlarge,  new  departments 
of  instruction  will  be  added,  and  the  educational 
work  kept  even  with  the  times  and  with  our  op- 
portunities. There  are  not  Avanting,  even  now, 
sure  indications  of  such  growth  in  several  direct- 
ions, signs  that  a  greater  institution  is  developing 
in  the  midst  of  what  we  see,  which  will  challenge 
new  enterprise,  which  will  yield  far  more  abundant 
fruit,  and  which  may  require  a  broader  name. 
And  one  chief  duty  that  rests  on  those  who  are 


THE  FUTURE    WORK  OF  OBERLIN.  339 

to  shape  the  future  here  must  be  to  mark  these 
signs,  wisely  to  provide  for  this  grander  work,  and 
strongly  to  carry  forward  these  goodly  begin- 
nings, in  the  spirit  of  the  fathers,  to  the  glorious 
result  to  which  God  leads  us  on. 

In  the  hush  of  sacred  memories  and  thrilling 
hopes  which  fill  this  hour,  how  many  voices  reach 
our  hearts,  from  all  the  past,  from  coming  days, 
from  the  heavenly  heights,  and  all  of  them  speak 
of  duty,  of  faithfulness,  and  the  kingdom  of  God. 
Ere  we  part,  let  us  lift  our  hands  and  record  our 
vows  before  each  other  and  high  heaven,  in  the 
name  and  for  the  glory  of  God,  to  fight  our  fight, 
to  run  our  course,  to  keep  the  faith,  as  bravely  and 
well  as  they  whose  names  and  deeds  we  tell  to- 
day with  words  of  honor  and  thoughts  of  love. 
"  Lead,  kindly  light.     Lead  Thou  us  on !" 


GOVERNOR  FOSTER'S  ADDRESS. 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  I 
have  no  complaint  such  as  Professor  Ryder  has 
made.  No  topic  was  given  me.  And  it  was 
hinted  to  me  that  brevity  was  a  quality  that  ought 
to  be  observed  on  this  occasion.  I  do  not  know 
that  I  have  had  an  example  of  this  kind  [laughter], 
for  it  strikes  me  that  fifteen  minutes  in  Oberlin 
are  equal  to  half  an  hour  in  any  other  place  that 
I  have  ever  been  in.  [Laughter.]  But  all  that 
has  been  said  ought  to  have  been  said,  and  it  has 
been  well  said. 

I  am  here  to  occupy  your  time  but  a  few  mo- 
ments. It  seems  to  me  that  in  this  year  of  jubilee, 
this  fiftieth  anniversary  of  your  existence,  the  talk- 
ing should  be  done  by  Oberlin  people.  But  I  am 
glad  to  be  here,  to  be  able  to  look  into  your  joyous 
faces  on  this  gladsome  occasion,  and  to  mingle  my 
voice  with  yours  in  congratulations  over  the  great 
accomplishments  of  the  past. 

Fifty  years  may  be  but  a  brief  period  in  the 
great  flight  of  time ;  but,  measured  by  any  stan- 
dard of  ours,  the  fifty  years  of  the  existence  of 
Oberlin  are  the  most  eventful  fifty  years  in  the 
history  of  our  race.  In  these  fifty  years  freedom 
has  been  established  in  all  our  country.  Fifty 
years  ago  slavery  was  entrenched  in  the  Execu- 


GOVERNOR  FOSTER'S  ADDRESS,  34 1 

tive  Department  of  our  Government,  in  its  legisla- 
tive  halls,  in  its  judiciary,  aye,  in  the  southern  por- 
tion of  it  the  divinity  of  this  institution  was  to  that 
section  satisfactorily  established  from  the  pulpit. 
To-day,  thank  God,  every  man  in  this  country,  be 
he  white  or  black,  is  the  equal  before  the  law  of 
every  other  man.  In  the  accomplishment  of  this 
work  the  influence  of  Oberlin  cannot  be  overesti- 
mated. 

Fifty  years  ago,  in  this  great  Commonwealth  of 
ours,  this  grand  State  of  Ohio,  this  State  at  the  head 
of  whose  government  it  is  to  me  a  source  of  infi- 
nite pride  to  be — this  State  where,  perhaps,  the 
grandest  civilization  now  exists  that  the  world 
ever  saw,  there  stood  upon  your  statute  books 
what  were  known  as  the  "  Black  Laws."  The 
colored  man  had  no  right  even  to  testify  in  court 
against  a  white  man.  These  laws  have  been  wiped 
out,  and  the  influence  of  Oberlin  in  accomplishing 
this  result  has  been  beyond  estimate. 

Oberlin  has  made  amazing  progress.  Thirty  or 
forty  years  ago,  in  the  minds  of  many,  I  might  say 
of  most  of  our  people,  Oberlin  was  a  subject  of 
reproach.  I  remember  well  the  first  time  that  I 
passed  through  the  village  upon  the  railroad,  por« 
sibly  thirty  years  ago.  As  we  neared  the  village, 
one  of  two  gentlemen  sitting  in  the  seat  in  front 
of  me,  said :  "  In  this  place,  if  a  w^hite  man  behaves 
himself,  he  is  as  good  as  a  nigger."  [Laughter.] 
"  Oh,"  said  the  other  one,  "  this  is  nigger  heaven, 
is  it?"  Another  one  said,  "Here  is  where  they 
stamp  upon  the  fugitive  slave  law — refuse  to  obey 


342  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

a  law  of  their  country."  Here  was  not  only  a 
station  of  the  ''  underground  raih^oad,"  but  one  of 
the  principal  headquarters. 

Friends  of  Oberlin,  you  have  been  forgiven  for 
all  this.  The  world  holds  no  grudge  against  you 
for  it.  If  you  did  sympathize  with  John  Brown, 
the  world  has  forgiven  you  for  it. 

To-day  it  is  not  the  habit  of  gentlemen,  when 
responding  to  the  tOast,  "  Ohio,"  to  say  very 
much  in  boast  of  our  educational  institutions.  We 
think  of  Yale ;  we  think  of  Harvard  ;  we  think  of 
Princeton,  and  we  are  disposed  not  to  boast  upon 
that  subject.  But  the^ime  has  come  when  gentle- 
men speaking  upon  this  theme  can  boast,  in  view 
of  the  grand  success  of  this  institution,  of  the  edu- 
cational institutions  of  the  State  of  Ohio.  [Ap- 
plause.] Go  where  we  will  to-day;  go  into  any 
convention,  go  into  the  public  halls,  go  to  your 
legislative  assemblies,  go  to  your  judiciary,  go  to 
your  executive  departments,  go  to  the  military,  go 
to  the  pulpit,  go  to  the  forum,  go  anywhere  where 
character,  learning  and  talent  are  demanded,  and 
you  will  find  graduates  of  Oberlin. 

I  wish  to  be  entirely  accurate.  Speaking  of  con- 
ventions, perhaps  I  ought  to  make  an  exception. 
There  are  very  few  Oberlinites  at  a  Democratic 
convention.     [Laughter.] 

It  would  be  difficult,  my  friends,  to  estimate  the 
influence  of  Oberlin  upon  the  politics  of  this  coun. 
try  in  the  past.  She  has  been  aggressively  right 
upon  all  of  the  great  questions  that  have  agitated 
the  country  since  her  existence.     She  is  aggres- 


GOVERNOR  FOSTER'S  ADDRESS.  343 

sively  right  now  upon  questions  that  agitate  the 
public  mind ;  and  I  doubt  not  that  in  all  the  future 
she  will  be  aggressively  right  upon  the  questions 
that  may  arise.  But,  after  all,  friends  of  this  insti- 
tution, the  crowning  glory  of  Oberlin  is,  as  has 
been  better  said  by  others,  that  she  has  demon- 
strated the  practicability  of  the  coeducation  of  the 
sexes,  and  has  established  the  fact  that  a  white  man 
and  a  black  man  may  be  educated  together  with- 
out loss  of  dignity  to  either.     [Applause.] 

God  bless  Oberlin  for  her  great  accomplish- 
ments in  the  past!  And  if  the  alumni  and  the 
friends  of  this  institution  will  do  what  our  friend 
who  last  spoke  has  asked  you  to  do,  fill  up  this 
endowment — and  I  have  a  right  to  speak  here,  for 
I  have  contributed  my  little  mite  recently  in  this 
direction  [applause] — then  her  influence  will  grow, 
and  her  future  will  be  more  glorious  than  her  past. 
You  ought  not  to  hesitate  an  hour  or  a  moment  to 
give  Oberlin  to-day  all  she  asks.  She  will  con- 
tinue to  ask.  Oberlin  will  continue  to  want.  1 
care  not  how  much  money  you  give  her.  It  only 
enlarges  and  widens  the  field,  and  she  will  still 
want  more.  But  she  needs  what  she  asks  to-day, 
and  I  trust  that  on  this  Fourth  of  July,  this  fiftieth 
anniversary  of  her  existence,  at  the  end  of  half  a 
century  of  glorious  achievement,  the  friends  here 
may  furnish  what  is  now  so  especially  needed ;  and 
if  this  is  done,  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  future  of 
Oberlin  will  be  as  glorious  and  as  illustrious  as  has 
been  her  past.     [Applause.] 


344  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 


WEDNESDAY  AFTERNOON,   JULY  4TH. 

Hon.  James  Monroe  presided  in  the  afternoon, 
and  the  exercises  were  opened  with  the  singing  of 
two  verses  of  the  hymn,  "  Must  Jesus  bear  the 
cross  alone  ?"  by  the  audience.  Prayer  was  then 
offered  by  Rev.  Josiah  Strong,  of  Hudson,  secre- 
tary of  the  Ohio  Home  Missionary  Society. 


FOR  THE  ALUMNI  REUNION,  O.  C. 
By  Pliny  Steele  Boyd. 

I. 

From  off  the  mountain- tops  of  thought. 
From  some  sweet  vale  or  other. 

We  gather,  as  good  children  ought. 
To  toast  our  Alma  Mother. 

To  greet  her  very  youngest  sons. 

And  hear  their  valedictories; 
And  join  in  heart  the  older  ones 

To  celebrate  her  victories. 

We  gather  round  our  mother's  knee. 
And  turn  o'er  memory's  pages; 

We  count  our  scars  with  solemn  glee. 
We  bless  the  coming  ages. 

We'll  not  forget  the  good  old  times. 
That  paved  the  way  for  better; 

Our  debt  of  gratitude  and  rhymes 
We'd  pay,  to  every  letter. 


FOR    THE  ALUMNI  REUNION,    0.    C.  345 


II. 

O  glorious  were  the  days  of  old 
When  we  went  forth  from  college, 

To  "  fight  the  devil,"  all  so  bold, 
And  advertise  our  knowledge. 

How  confident,  how  brave  and  gay 
Then  rode  we  out  to  battle; 

As  innocent  almost  as  they 
Who  shake  an  infant's  rattle. 

Armed  cap-a-pie,  all  well-equipped, 

Our  armor  all  celestial; 
We  thought  we  never  could  be  whipped 

By  any  foe  terrestrial. 

We  thought  the  things  we  didn't  know 
Were  hardly  worth  the  knowing; 

The  genius  that  we  couldn't  show 
Would  never  find  a  showing! 

It  never  did!     But  let  that  pass; 

Pray  let  me  not  anticipate; 
Let  Clio  speak:  her  truthful  glass 

Your  gravest  fears  will  dissipate. 

A  score  of  witnesses  here  rise 

To  voice  her  inspirations; 
We  look  into  each  other's  eyes, 

And  find  our  confirmations. 

Each  looks  into  his  heart  and  reads 
The  plain  unvarnished  story; 

His  plans,  his  triumphs,  or  his  needs. 
His  thirst  for  fame  or  glory. 

Each  brings  his  budget  full  of  news. 
And  joins  in  the  procession. 

My  own  I  bring,  with  news  and  views 
To  this  unique  confession. 


34<5  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 


III. 

I  used  to  keep  a  winged  steed, 
Perhaps  you  well  remember; 

He  wasn't  famous,  much,  for  speed; 
He  wasn't  made  of  timber. 

He  wasn't  just  a  common  "hoss,** 

My  thoroughbred  Pegasian! 
He  wasn't,  say,  a  kind  of  cross, 
Though  frisky  on  occasion. 

I  turned  him  out  to  grass  one  Spring, 

Tied  to  an  ox-high  daisy; 
He  broke  away  and  sprained  a  wing, 

And  came  home  lame  and  crazy. 

I  do  not  use  him  any  more; 

He  isn't  worth  a  copper. 
The  heights  Parnassian  to  explore, 

I  cannot  tell  a  whopper. 

'Tis  sad — tis  very  sad  indeed, 
But  truth  for  all  humanity — 

The  Psalmist  put  it  in  his  creed — 
Of  horse-flesh,  all  is  vanity! 


IV. 

I  used  to  keep  a  comely  Muse, 
Perhaps  you  know  her  history! 

The  story  ?    Well,  I  can't  refuse; 
This  is  no  place  for  mystery. 

She  always  had  a  trace  of — well, 
We'll  call  it  eccentricity. 

No  mortal  could  the  reason  tell; 
I  needn't  tell  explicitly. 


FOR   THE  ALUMNI  REUNION,    O.    C.  347 

One  morn  she  woke  up  with  the  blues 

And  wouldn't  sing  a  particle; 
And,  horrid  Muse!  she  changed  her  views 

About  the  foremost  article. 

Bilious,  you  think,  and  therefore  sad; 

She  lost  the  true  perspective. 
Conceived  the  world  as  wholly  bad. 

Then  raked  it  with  invective! 

She  was  the  Muse  of  nimble  feet, 

For  any  music  ready; 
With  lips,  and  voice,  and  temper  sweet, 

Glad,  frolicsome,  but  steady. 

She  is  a  sober  Muse  and  grim, 

Sedate,  a  trifle  prosy; 
She  will  not  even  sing  a  hymn. 

Nor  smile  upon  a  posy. 

She  hardly  ventures  on  a  smile. 

When  all  around  are  jolly; 
A  flash  of  wit  is  not  her  style. 

She  can't  endure  such  folly. 

Her  tongue  is  long,  and  at  the  world 

Is  very  fond  of  storming; 
Her  javelins  all  round  are  hurled^ 

She's  mighty  at  reforming! 

Her  worst  of  faults  appearing,  when 

A  great  convention  holding, 
She  gets  the  good  together,  then 

She  gives  them  such  a  scolding! 

Her  aid  I  surely  must  refuse 

Forevermore  hereafter, 
Until  she  learns  again  to  use 

The  gifts  of  song  and  laughter. 


348  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 


V. 

I  have  another  in  her  place. 

Gay  as  a  rose  or  fuchsia; 
With  mother's  heart  and  angel-face, 

I  call  her  Aunt  Jerusha, 

She  thinks  the  world  is  growing  wise, 

She  feels  the  Lord  is  in  it; 
That  He,  who  rules  the  earth  and  skies, 

Did  wisely  to  begin  it, 

I  hold  to  Aunt  Jerusha's  creed, 
That  love  divine  and  sweetness, 

Are  better  than  the  sharpest  screed 
To  cure  earth's  incompleteness. 

That  evil  is  o'ercome  with  good, 

That  like  the  little  leaven 
That  leavens  all  the  lump,  we  should 

Our  world  lift  up  to  Heaven. 

That  as  the  sun  smiles  on  the  earth 
And  calls  forth  life  and  beauty, 

Each  mother's  son  shall  prove  his  worth 
By  doing  cheerful  duty. 


From  off  the  mountain -tops  of  thought, 
Or  some  old  burnt-out  crater, 

We  gather  as  good  children  ought, 
To  toast  our  Alma  Mater. 

From  every  clime,  from  every  coast, 
From  regions  near  and  utter, 

We  bring  her  hither  tons  of  toast 
All  spread,  -both  sides,  with  butter. 

Long  may  she  hold  her  beauty  rare, 
Grow  old  and  wrinkled  never; 

For  aye  her  crown  of  wisdom  wear, 
Long  may  she  live  forever! 


FOR    THE  ALUMNI  REUNION,    0.    C.  349 

Following  the  poem,  brief  addresses  were  made 
by  the  following  alumni,  guests  and  representatives 
of  sister  institutions:  Tutor  Hodge,  class  of  '38; 
Rev.  Robert  West,  of  the  Advance  ;  Professor  Mor- 
ley,  of  Western  Reserve  University  ;  Rev.  Dr.  Fisk, 
of  Chicago  Congregational  Theological  Seminary ; 
Rev.  Dr.  James  Eells,  of  Lane  Theological  Semin- 
ary, Cincinnati ;  Rev.  Dr.  Barbour,  of  Yale  Theo- 
logical Seminary ;  Prof.  S.  J.  Buck,  of  Grinnell 
College;  Rev.  Dr.  Simeon  Gilbert,  of  the  Congre- 
gationalist;  Rev.  Arthur  M.  Thome,  of  Kentucky  ; 
President  E.  H.  Merrell,  D.D.,  of  Ripon  College, 
Wisconsin  ;  President  Brooks,  of  Tabor  College, 
Iowa. 

Professor  Monroe  presented  a  large  number  of 
letters  of  regret  from  distinguished  individuals  and 
college  and  seminary  Faculties.  Among  others, 
were  letters  from  John  G.  Whittier  the  poet, 
Theodore  D.  Weld,  President  Mark  Hopkins,  Rev. 
S.  H.  Waldo,  President  Asa  Mahan,  Mr.  J.  F. 
Scovill,  Fred  Douglass,  Whitelaw  Reid,  Senators 
Sherman  and  Pendleton,  Judge  Foraker,  and  the 
Faculties  of  Marietta  College,  Colorado  College, 
Adrian  College,  and  Bangor  and  Andover  Theo- 
logical Seminaries.  The  letter  from  the  Quaker 
poet,  which  was  in  his  own  handwriting,  was  read. 
The  following  is  a  copy  of  it : 

Danvers,  20,  6  mo.,  1883. 
Prof.   Wm.  Goodell  Frost,  Oberlin  0. 

My  Dear  Sir:  I  regret  to  be  obliged  to  say  that  I  have  not  been 
able  to  comply  with  the  request  to  prepare  a  poem  for  the  Oberlin 
semi-centennial  celebration.     I  delayed  a  definite  answer  hoping 


350  OBERLIN  JUBILEE, 

that  I  could  give  a  favorable  one,  but  my  state  of  health  has 
made  writing  so  difficult  that  I  have  not  dared  undertake 
what,  under  other  circumstances,  would  have  been  a  labor  of 
love. 

I  am  not  insensible  to  the  great  and  peculiar  interest  of  the  oc- 
casion. I  fully  recognize  the  debt  which  Freedom,  Temperance, 
Christian  Manhood  and  womanhood  owe  to  the  noble  institution 
faithful  when  others  were  faithless  in  the  dark  days  of  Slavery  and 
Disunion.     God  bless  and  prosper  it! 

I  am  very  truly  thy  friend, 

John  G.  Whittier. 


LETTER   FROM   MR.    THEODORE   D.  WELD. 

Hyde  Park,  Mass.,  June  26,  1883. 

Dear  Friends:  My  heartiest  thanks!  You  invite  me  to  Ober- 
Hn's  half-century  jubilee.  A  grand  jubilee  to  me  it  would  be, 
could  I  be  there.  Yet,  though  bodily  fast  tied  here,  I  shall  still 
hear  your  jubilee  trump  as  it  rings  out  the  old  half-century,  and  in 
the  same  key  rings  in  the  new. 

Before  Oberlin  was,  I  well  knew  its  founders,  and  the  sacred  pur- 
pose to  live  for  others  that  fired  their  souls.  That  purpose  founded 
Oberlin,  and  baptized  it  with  the  Spirit  of  Him  who  washed  his 
disciples'  feet.  When  it  was  hardly  two  years  old,  not  yet  quite 
out  of  its  forest  bivouac,  I  was  there  awhile.  Teachers,  pupils, 
and  villagers,  in  all  perhaps  three  hundred,  were  hand,  heart  and 
soul  Abolitionists  and  teetotalers  to  a  man  (I  need  not  say  to  a 
woman.) 

The  thrill  of  that  great  heart-beat  that  I  felt  through  Oberlin 
then  has  pulsated  far  and  wide  through  millions  since. 

It  swung  wide  open  its  doors,  and  with  heartiest  welcome  beck- 
oned into  its  halls,  irrespective  of  sex  or  color. 

Blessings  on  Oberlin!  that  so  long  ago  broke  the  path  and  led 
the  way  for  feeble  feet  to  follow,  and  through  those  long  years, 
which  tried  men's  souls,  steered  first  and  alone  through  night  and 
storm. 

May  the  Oberlin  of  the  future  wear  worthily  the  mantle  of  its 
memorable  past. 


FOR    THE  ALUMNI  KE UNION,  O.  C.  351 

All  honor  to  the  first  and  bravest  educational  pioneer  out  of  the 
darkness  into  light. 

I  am,  dear  friends,  with  kind  salutations, 

Gratefully  yours, 
Theodore  D.  Weld. 

To  Messrs.  Smith,  Frost,  and  March,  and  Mrs.  Johnston,  Committee 
for  the  Oberlin  Semi-Centennial. 


After  the  singing  of  the  Doxology,  the  benedic- 
tion was  pronounced  by  the  venerable  Professor 
John  Morgan. 


COMMEMORATIVE  HYMN. 

Sung  by  the  audience  in  the  Auditorium,  July  4. 

Tune — Missionary  Chant. 

REV.    SAMUEL   WOLCOTT,    D.D. 

Where  knelt  with  faith  on  virgin  sod 
The  men  who  vowed  this  site  to  God, 
For  fifty  years  the  passing  days 
Have  echoed  sacred  songs  of  praise. 

The  pathless  forest  disappeared, 
Primeval  solitude  was  cheered 
By  fervor  of  devotion  rare, 
By  halls  of  science  and  of  prayer. 

Here  knowledge  spread  its  choicest  store, 
To  bond  and  free  threw  wide  its  door; 
Aglow  with  learning's  hallowed  flame, 
Our  sons  and  daughters  hither  came. 

Heroic  teachers  here  were  seen, 
Of  earnest  thought  and  saintly  mien. 
With  one*  who  had  the  prophet's  dower, 
And  as  a  prince  with  God  had  power. 

The  zeal  of  consecration  spread, 
Its  power  was  on  the  nation  shed, 
It  nerved  the  brave  for  freedom's  fight. 
It  poured  on  pagan  darkness  light. 

O  God!  our  past  is  all  thine  own, 
Its  gains  we  lay  before  thy  throne; 
And  loyal  still  to  truth  and  right, 
For  future  conflicts  gird  with  might. 


*  President  Finney. 


THE  CLASS  OF  '47. 

[At  a  reunion  of  the  class  of  1847,  at  Oberlin,  O.,  on  Tuesday  afternoon,  July 
3,  1883,  the  following  poem  was  read  by  Rev.  Antoinette  L.  Brown  Blackwell. 
Fourteen  out  of  thirty-eight  class  graduates  were  present.] 

Fifty  years  crown  Alma  Mater, 

Ringing  out  her  Jubilee; 
Can  the  years  since  we  were  scattered 

Count  up  three  and  thirty-three  ? 
Thought  o'erleaps  the  flying  cycles, 

Memory  lightens  back  the  way; 
If  in  mind  all  time  abideth, 

I  declare  'twas  yesterday! 

There  we  are!  fresh  youths  and  maidens, 

Wilful  these,  and  manly  those; 
Teachers,  wise,  with  best  intentions 

Often  treading  on  our  toes. 
Ducklings  of  the  brooding  mother, 

Scrambling  here  and  venturing  there, 
Nature  in  us  younger,  stronger. 

Than  maternal,  coddling  care. 

Yesterday!     The  youths  and  maidens 

Now  transformed  to  College  dons, 
Lawyers,  preachers,  grandmas,  teachers. 

Editors,  and  all  the  "  ons"  ? 
Credit  oft  is  too  precocious! 

Only  young  folks  here  are  classed, 
Storing  up  in  their  traditions 

Youth  perpetual  in  the  past. 

Snows  adrift  above  our  foreheads! 

Pearly  blooms  wreathe  every  brow; 
Quaintly  furrowed!     Yes,  with  thinking, 

Not  with  time  or  care,  I  trow; 


354  OBERLIN  JUBILEE. 

Life  is  brimming  yet  witli  promise: 
Summers,  full-leaved,  elbow  spring! 

True;  but  autumns,  fruitage-weighted, 
Far  off  coming,  slowly  wing. 

Some  of  us  have  won  promotion, 

On  to  kindlier,  sunnier  climes; 
All,  no  doubt,  have  borne  our  crosses; 

Yet  peal  out  the  ringing  chimes; 
Jubilate!  jubilate! 

Alma  Mater,  plucky,  brave, 
Holds  high  festival;  her  classes, 

Young  or  old,  their  pennons  wave. 

Granted  we  are  getting  older — 

Zest  of  life  ebbs  not  a  bit; 
Matron  faces  brightly  greet  us. 

Those  are  sages,  we'll  admit; 
There's  no  doubt,  the  cranky  leaven 

Women  hid  in  loyal  meal, 
Raised  the  class  of  '47 

Higher  than  the  common  weal. 


INDEX. 


Allen,  Dr.  Dudley  P.,  Address, 

222 

Antislavery  Reunion,  228 

Beginning,  Rev.  John  M.  Wil- 
liams, 75 

Baccalaureate  Sermon,  Pres. 
Jas.  H.  Fairchild,  85 

Ballantine,  Prof.  W.  G.,  Intro- 
ductory Address,  9 

Barbour,  Prof.  W.  M.,  Address, 

14 
Blackvvell,      Rev.      Antoinette 

Brov^rn,  Poem,  352 
Boyd,  Rev.  Pliny  Steele,  Poem, 

344 
Conservatory   Commencement, 

5 
Colony  and  College,  Rev.  Wm. 

H.  Ryder,  301 
"  Class  of  *47,"  Poem,  352 
Commemorative    Hymn,    Rev. 

Samuel  Wolcott,  351 
Cox,  Gen.  J.  D.,  Address,  266 
Cross,  Rev.  R.  T.,  "  Fourth  De- 
cade," 215 
Dresser,   Rev.  Amos,  Personal 
Experience  in  the  South,  236 
Decades,     First,    Rev.     H.     L. 
Hammond,  192 
Third,     Rev.    J.    L. 

Patton,  207 
Fourth,   Rev.   R.  T. 
Cross,  215 


Decades,   Fifth.   Dr.  Dudley  P. 

Allen,  222 
Early    Days,     Mrs.     Douglass 

Putnam,  159 
Early    Days,  Rev.   Leonard   S. 

Parker,  70 
Evans,    Miss    Mary,     Greeting 
from  Lake  Erie  Seminary,  178 
Fairchild,  Pres.  Jas.  H.,  Bacca- 
laureate, 85 

Address  of  Welcome, 
256 
Fairfield,  Rev.  M.  W.,  Address, 

53 

Foster,  Gov.  Chas.,  Address,  340 

Future  of  Oberlin,  Prof.  Judson 
Smith,  322 

Hammond,  Rev  H.  L.,  **  First 
Decade,"  192 

Hayes,  Ex.  Pres.  R.  B.,  Ad- 
dress, 50 

Hayes,  Gen.  P.  C,  Oberlin  and 
the  War,  228 

Home  Missionary,  The  Early, 
Rev.  John  Todd,  134 

Introductory  Address,  Prof.  W. 
G.  Ballantine,  9 

Invitation,  3 

Johnston,  Mrs.  A.  A.  F.,  Wel- 
come to  Alumnae,  142 

jubilee  Day,  256 

kincaid,  Mrs.  M.  C,  "What 
Oberlin  has  done  for  us,"  171 


356 


INDEX. 


Lake  Erie  Seminary  Greeting, 
178 

Lane  Seminary  Rebels,  Rev. 
H.  L.  Lyman,  60 

Little,  Mrs.  Sarah  Ceroles, 
"  Education  of  Women,  146 

Lyman,  Rev.  H.  L.,  Lane  Semi- 
nary Rebels,  60 

Midway,  Poem,  Mrs.  Emily 
Huntington  Miller,  166 

Missionary  Ordination,  6 

Missionary  Work  of  Oberlin, 
Rev.  M.  E.  Strieby,  116 

Patton,  Rev.  J.  L.,  "  Third  De- 
cade," 207 

Parker,  Rev.  Leonard  S., 
"  Early  Days,"  70 

Price,  John,  Rescue  of,  Rev. 
Rich.  Winsor,  251 

Programme,  5-8 

Public  Affairs,  Influence  of 
Oberlin  in,  Gen.  Cox,  266 

Putnam,  Mrs.  Douglass,  "  Ear- 
ly Days,"  159 

Reunion,   Theological  Alumni, 

53 
Alumni,  192 
Alumnae,  142 
Classes  and  Societies, 

7 
Ryder,   Rev.  Wm.    H.,   Colony 
and  College,  301 


Smith,  Prof.  Judson,  Future  of 
Oberlin,  322 

Strieby.  Rev.  M.  E.,  "  Mission- 
ary Work  of  Oberlin,"  116 

Stone,  Mrs.  Lucy,  Oberlin  and 
Woman,  311 

Tabernacle,  4 

Theology  of  Oberlin,  Prof.  W. 
M.  Barbour,  14 

Todd,  Rev.  John,  The  Early 
Home  Missionary,  134 

War,  Oberlin  and,  Gen.  P.  C. 
Hayes,  228 

Welcome,  Address  by  Pres.  Jas. 
H.  Fairchild,  256 

Welcome  to  Alumnae,  Mrs.  A. 
A.  F.  Johnston,  142 

Weld,  Theo.  D.,  Letter,  550 

What  Oberlin  has  done  for  Us, 
Mrs.  M.  C.  Kincaid,  171 

Williams,  Rev.  John  M.,  The 
Beginning.  75 

Whittier,  John  Greenleaf,  Let- 
ter, 349 

Winsor,  Rev.  Rich.,  How  John 
Price  was  Rescued,  251 

Wolcott,  Rev.  Samuel,  Com- 
memorative Hymn,  351 

Woman,  Oberlin  and,  Mrs. 
Lucy  Stone,  311 

Women,  Oberlin  and  the  Educa- 
tion of,  Mrs.  S.  C.  Little,  146 


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